The solar powered goliath that circumnavigated the world (18 HQ Photos)

Are you referring to your intensedebate pic? Because I am.

wind is technically solar powered

They also get becalmed. Besides this is more about proof of concept and modt of all because it had never been done. It was THERE, damn it!

Last time I said that, I got a drink thrown in my face.

it will look the same……

Have you seen solar technology from 20 years ago??

pity you could do it with wind in half the time

so do i as its the first solely powered goliath to circumnavigate (that mean go the whole way around) the world (the world is what globes look like only bigger) and cauwse its solar it uses sun and not fuel except it converts the sun to a type of fuel. great post thanks chive

Dude say spoiler alert before you say crap like that!

Yeah good one. Thanks for showing that you have no idea how things work. Do you know how many solar panels you'll need to move a conventional boat? The fact is that the panels have certain yields in the sun-to-electricity conversion and in most cases thats like 10-15%. Which means you'll need a fuckton of panels for a normal boat. Thats why these guys built such a lightweight boat so they can move it and move it fast with considerably less energy. That's where the engineering genius is – lightweight, aerodynamic and slices through the water without toppling like a origami sail. Ignorance must be bliss for you because it makes you believe you know everything.

Haha Dam right

and switzerland still won the america's cup twice.

Seals deserve love too

seems inefficient that the props arent full submerged?

They should club those motherfuckers to death.

It looks like the panels are pretty durable, I imagine it really is one giant sundeck, I'm sure they laid out some towels and did some sunbathing on that massive bow.

solar panels can only absorb so much energy at a time and they have nothing blocking the rays when they're in the middle of the ocean…As for windmills, they don't work as well as you think if they aren't stationary, especially for the 40k minimum one would cost. I doubted they wanted to pay that much for something to make them less aerodynamic. Plus then they wouldn't be the first "solely" solar powered ship.

A 'windmill' taking advantage of stung ocean winds sounds an awful lot like a 'sail'

No, solar trackers on a boat is idiotic.
1) More moving parts = more things to break
2) The best *energy density* for a PV array is always blanketing a surface in panels. You can get more energy out of an individual panel by tracking the sun, but in a space constrained application (like a roof or a boat), you simply want to pack as many panels in as you can. You simply can't get as many panels in a limited space if you use trackers because the trackers shade each other unless you spread them out (something we call the "ground cover ratio," or GCR).

Finally, for your comment about a windmill on a boat, I'll kindly refer you to the 1st law of thermodynamics: energy can only be transferred, never created nor destroyed. In other words, you can't use the forward motion of the ship through the atmosphere to create additional energy through a wind turbine. At best, with 100% efficiency, you are turning your own kinetic energy (the energy you have when you're moving) into electrical energy.

P.S. I work for the company that manufactured the cells for that boat. No, I won't tell you who.

It is if they went around south america not through the canal.

Been through the Panama Canal several times. You are only towed a few hundred feet in the locks by electric locomotives. So that distance really doesn't count. On a small vessel, we were not towed at all. It is possible this vessel was small enough to have not required the locomotive tugs and may indeed have motored under its own power ALL the way around the world.

Same here

Ditto. 40 shots of the same cells — I wanted to see their living conditions.

One, what? A new name?

Challenge accepted. Grab your kayak and get paddling

It's awesome when common sense prevails. Nice comment Speedstripe.

I agree, but I think this was intended to be a proof of concept and to be a showcase of the potential of solar energy, rather than a practical transportation suggestion.

No but, eventually, they pay for themselves.

I thought the same thing. Although I'm wondering if that wasn't by design being that the power to the props wouldn't be sufficient to turn them if they were fully submerged.

Also look at how close they're mounted to the rear of the pontoons. I don't see how they can push much water with them blocked like that.

they are called props not propellers leafs fan.

i wanna see how this thing takes on some big waves

They used batteries to store electrical energy. The panels produce more power than it takes to run the engines, so on sunny days, the batteries get charged while it's motoring. Unfortunately, I don't know how moch storage capacity they had.

You mean the apocalyptic no oil future, which is getting closer every day and no-one's really doing anything about?

This vessel made numerous stops along the way.