PlanetSolar – the worlds largest solar boat

PlanetSolar is the worlds largest solar boat and sailing around the world at the moment. She is in the Philippines at the time of writing. Their goal is to promote the use of renewable. They do this by showing that renewable energy technologies work as well as by pushing the boundaries of current technology.
Wow, sailing around the world to promote something you believe in, that is pretty cool.

About the boat

PlanetSolar weighs around 60 tons, is covered by 38.000 solar cells which can generate over 100kW to power the boat. This comes at a cost of 18 million euros. This shows the problem of solar powered boats, they are really expensive!
PlanetSolar has an average speed of 8 knots (about 15km/h) and a top speed of 15 knots.

I am very interested to follow the progress of PlanetSolar. But even more interested to see how this can influence the use of solar power or wind power on board. The first problem this project exhibits in the use of renewable energy on board ships is that it is really expensive. Hopefully, extensive use and projects like these will lower the costs of renewable energy, both for boats and on land to make sure that the adoption rate will go up. Sailing around in silence without a smelling engine sounds like a great future to me!