Like its Super Nova and Ocean Empire LSV stablemates, the 78 meter (256 ft) Ark Angel LSV (Life Support Vessel) from Sauter Carbon Offset Design harnesses energy from a variety of renewable sources to achieve up to 100 percent reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. When using its four 400 kW Daimler Bluetec Turbo Compound DD16 diesel engines, Sauter says that the green megayacht is capable of sailing at 28 knots while still reducing fuel consumption and emissions by 50 percent.
The renewable energy is supplied from multiple sources including a motion damping regeneration (MDR) system that captures energy from the waves is rated at up to 100 kW, as are the solar cells deployed throughout the vessel's exoskeleton as deck spoilers and a radar tower canopy. An auxiliary SkySail harnesses wind power and is rated at 300 to 400 kW with power sailing regeneration.
These systems combine with plug-in power sources to charge the Ark Angel's 3,000 kWh lithium-ion uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that is used to power all the vessel's five star hotel services day and night or allow it to navigate harbors or inland waterways with zero local emissions.
When the batteries are low, the Ark Angel can turn to its four 400 kW Daimler Bluetec Turbo Compound DD16 diesel engines which Sauter Design says deliver a reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of 50 percent when sailing at 28 knots, increasing to 75 percent when slowing to 18 knots and up to 85 percent when traveling at 14 knots. Its carbon neutral cruising range at 14 knots is 5,000 nautical miles, while its zero carbon cruising range at an average 10 knots is unlimited.
Other features include a computerized energy management, maintenance and guidance system, energy efficient AC and refrigeration systems with waste heat recovery and a wave piercing hi-speed displacement hull design.
The company says that, as a certified carbon offset project, the Ark Angel should save on average 4,000 tons of CO2 per year and, when plugged in, she is capable of feeding 450 MWh's of electricity to the grid – which is enough to offset up to 5,000 nautical miles of cruising every year.
Sauter Carbon Offset Design's Ark Angel sports an aluminum superstructure and carbon/Kevlar composite hull and decks. It has berths for 18 guests and 16 crew, as well as a fishery, hydroponic farm, helipad and a couple of 9.5 m (31 ft) Solar Hybrid Atlantic Guardian S Class tenders.
Great to see that energy saving technologies are sterting to be applied to yachts too.
Her batteries hold 3 MWh's, so you cannot be talking about discharging her batteries.
Her diesel engines total rating is 1.6 MW, plus solar panels at 0.1 MW, and wave power at 0.1 MW, so are you saying that after discharging the batteries, the remaining 447 MWh's come from draining the diesel fuel to run generators, plus solar and wave power? At 1.8 MW (combining diesel with the solar and wave power) it must run for 248.3 hours to put the remaining 447 MWh's onto the grid. Please explain how you came up with the 450 MWh's.
I am not picking on Toyota or the designers of this boat - I am glad they\'ve been thinking and working on this kind of stuff. I just think they\'d be better off spending the extra dollars on contributing to research for things like biofuels that their cars and boats can run on - and maybe eventually make them net CO2 reducers.
As a more general comment, seeing as this article is about \"green\" tech, I am starting to realise that we\'ve been kind of hypnotised by the idea of reducing emissions as being the goal when pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere is what is actually needed. I am a big fan of luxury boats and this one would tread much more lightly on the planet but I can only view it as a very early stepping stone towards actually fixing the problem, rather than merely slowing the rate at which it is getting worse.
And, you can be sure that some enterprising group will come up with a method to reinvigorate, or recycle, lithium-ion batteries once they have reached the end of their service life.
C\'mon fellas. You\'re a beacon in a sea of dross. Stay that way.
And besides. A helicopter? 1600 kw worth of diesel engines? Green? Fig off.