World's largest solar-powered boat takes to the waves

The largest solar-powered boat in the world was unveiled yesterday ahead of its planned voyages to circumnavigate the globe.

The 31 metre by 15 metre boat, dubbed PlanetSolar, will be able to travel at a top speed of 15 knots (17mph) using only power generated from solar panels installed on top of the hull.

The boat, which is large enough to carry 50 people, was designed by a team of international engineers and built in Kiel, Germany.

The $24m multihull white catamaran is topped by around 5,300 square feet of black photovoltaic solar panels consisting of 38,000 next-generation solar cells provided by solar manufacturer SunPower.

The company said each of the cells boasts an efficiency of at least 22 per cent - the highest conversion efficiency that is currently commercially available.

Raphael Domjan, the skipper and chief executive of the PlanetSolar project, marked a turning point in the development of low-carbon shipping. "The solar-powered boat is now a reality," he said.

In April, Domjan and a co-skipper plan to take the boat on a world tour, which will cover 24,850 miles roughly along the Equator, and aims to raise awareness of solar energy worldwide.

A number of shipping firms are also investigating using solar panels to provide auxilary power and propulsion.

Most notably, Japanese shipping giants Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Nippon Oil Corp launched the Auriga Leader in late 2008, which features 328 solar panels that can generate up to 40kW of energy. The ship has subsequently been used by Toyota to transport shipments of its Prius from Japan to the US.