PlanetSolar’s solar yacht in Abu Dhabi.
After spending some time in Qatar, Tûranor PlanetSolar crossed the Persian Gulf into the United Arab Emirates. It overcame some bad weather and a severe technical problem with the pitch controller for one of its steering propellers to arrive in time for the World Future Energy Summit at the ANDEC convention center in Abu Dhabi. After arriving back in Monaco it will have become the world’s first photovoltaic yacht to circumnavigate the globe.
In J.R.R Tolkien’s Elvish language, the word Tûranor means “power of the sun.” All sailing ships utilize the power of the sun via wind, so by some reckoning, Ferdinand Magellan’s ship Victoria earned the title of the worlds first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the earth when it returned to Seville, Spain in 1522.
Here are some comparisons:
Magellan’s Victoria:
- Type: Spanish Carrack
- Length: ~20 meters
- Displacement: 85 tons
- Crew: 42 (A crew of 270 was initially spread across 5 ships. Only one ship and 18 crew survived the circumnavigation.)
- Passenger capacity:0
- Propulsion: 3 masts, square rigged sails, powered by wind
- Speed: Average 4 knots
Tûranor PlanetSolar
- Type: Luxury power yacht
- Length: 31 meters
- Displacement: 85 metric tons
- Crew: 4
- Passenger capacity: 200
- Propulsion: Two 10kW and two 60kW permanent magnet electric motors powered by 500 square meters of photovoltaic panels rated at 93kW
- Speed: Average 7.5 knots, max 14 knots.
When will we begin to see photovoltaic powered passenger ferries and cargo ships in the Mideast?
Author: Brian Nitz
Brian remembers when a single tear dredged up a nation's guilt. The tear belonged to an Italian-American actor known as Iron-Eyes Cody, the guilt was displaced from centuries of Native American mistreatment and redirected into a new environmental awareness. A 10-year-old Brian wondered, 'What are they... No, what are we doing to this country?' From a family of engineers, farmers and tinkerers Brian's father was a physics teacher. He remembers the day his father drove up to watch a coal power plant's new scrubbers turn smoke from dirty grey-back to steamy white. Surely technology would solve every problem. But then he noticed that breathing was difficult when the wind blew a certain way. While sailing, he often saw a yellow-brown line on the horizon. The stars were beginning to disappear. Gas mileage peaked when Reagan was still president. Solar panels installed in the 1970s were torn from roofs as they were no longer cost-effective to maintain. Racism, public policy and low oil prices transformed suburban life and cities began to sprawl out and absorb farmland. Brian only began to understand the root causes of "doughnut cities" when he moved to Ireland in 2001 and watched history repeat itself. Brian doesn't...
