Sweet! The Dutch Build the World’s First Solar Speedboat
May 30, 2008 · Print This Article
Oh, how I love basking in the sunshine, smelling the salty air and dipping a foot into the water while relaxing on a boat. Too bad motor boats are really not good for the environment – they’re noisy, they use a lot of energy and leak oil. Then I saw this: the world’s first solar powered speedboat. Drrooooollll.
From gizmag:
Electricity and water: we usually do everything we can to keep the two apart, but it seems the electric engine revolution is moving through the boating world as well. And when you’re out on the water enjoying a speedboat, what more appropriate power source is there than the sun? The Czeers MK1 prototype solar speedboat is a 30-knot photovoltaic dream in delicious shades of carbon fiber Carbon fiber , solar cell and lush orange leather. Solar boats for environmental warriors eh? Next thing you’ll be telling us they’re making wind-powered ones.
The Czeers MK1 prototype is, as far as its Dutch creators are concerned, the world’s first solar speedboat. The Delft Technical University Solarboat Team built the original platform as an entry in the 2006 Nuon Frisian Solar challenge, which it easily won - and in the process, attracted serious investment power from Rabobank to get a full scale test boat built.
The resulting test boat, made from 100% carbon fiber inlaid with leather trim, photovoltaic cells on almost all horizontal surfaces and an LCD touch-screen control system, launched at the Millionaire Fair in 2007, and has since proven itself up to 30 knots on the water.
We are really looking forward to being rich ass green media tycoons. We’ll have a whole fleet of these babies. They won’t have leather trim though (yuck!). Seriously though, this thing is pretty sweet. No oil, no fumes, no engine noise. If you’re wondering about the cost, let’s put it this way: there’s a reason the LCD touch-screen system was launched at the Millionaire Fair.
You can check out a video of it in action on YouTube, complete with a weirdly inappropriate song choice (Aphex Twin).
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That is cool. My in-laws have a boat and it’s load and stinky. It’s best for sitting on the dock and drinking beer.
When I go on a boat it’s to par-tay with the ladies. This thing looks a little too small for boats-gone-wild.
K-Man you have a one track mind, seriously. We are talking about innovation around solar power and you are looking at this thing and wondering how it would be for a party.
My guess is that you need a bigger boat to make up for your own shortcomings.