Rememberthe luxury zero emission Solarwave 62 catamaran designs from the end of 2015? Well,Turkish shipyard Ned Ship teamed with Solarwave to create the seriesof zero emission solar yachts, now available in 54, and 64 feetversions with a 66-foot charter on its way. After nutting out theconcept and spending 5 years testing the technology, the veryfirst Solarwave 64 is finally cruising the waters. What's more, it'sboasting an unlimited range operating off the solar panels alone.
"Wecan confirm that we do have an unlimited range only powered by thesolar roof, during a normal sunny day and a cruising speed between6-7 kn" Egon Faiss, MarketingDirector from the Ned Ship told New Atlas.
Solarwave64 combines a carbon composite hull design from Ned Ship's Dr. OrhanCelikkol and Michael Köhler's Solar Energy system to create aluxurious 64 foot catamaran that's capable of operating with zeroemissions.
The yacht's roof is clad with a 15 kW photovoltaic array connected to a series of 100 kWh batteries. The number of batteries can change depending on the yacht owner's needs. The system is designed to provide enough energy for the yacht to cruise, as well as power all household appliances on board (night and day).
Othermajor features of the Solarwave 64 design include a retractable skyroof, a 6.5m (21.3 ft) tender garage, a modern luxury interiorcomplete with full kitchen and lounge, three to five guest cabins, anadditional cabin for crew, rear and front sun decks and ample outdoordining space.
TheSolarwave 64 catamaran is available in three versions, "Cruiser," "Sailor" and "Power". Solarwave 64 Cruiser packs the PV panels and battery bank for clean and quiet jaunts on the water. The Solarwave 64 Sailorincorporates sails, giving users the options of hoisting up the canvas and enjoying a more sportive hands-on sailingexperience.
Finally, the Solarwave 64 Power is the hybrid of the range, being equipped with two D3 VolvoPenta 220 hp diesel engines that allow the vessel to exceed 20 knots. The hybrid system can be usedin 3 modes: Pure electric, Diesel propulsion or Booster mode (bothsystems together).
The Solarwave 64 is priced at around €2.5 million. Check out this impressive vessel inour extensive gallery.
Sources: Solarwave, Nedship Group
That reduces the efficiency to just over 21% assuming an actual 15KW array (everyone ALWAYS rounds in the way that sounds best for them). Also assuming the author made not typographical errors as has happened in the past, 21% is reasonable for production high end solar panels.
Assuming the panels are gallium arsenide tri-layer, that might even be on the low end of production as in lab results are over 44% now and the record is over 48% energy conversion. If I were getting a 2.5 million euro boat powered primarily by photovoltaic cells, I would definitely want the best cells out there.
Now you all do the math on the power. I get really confused when they give power produced by a solar panel because Watts=Amperage^2 x Voltage. Amperage = Coulombs/second. So Watts should be per second^2 but apparently for solar panel power calculations it is not or a 100 Watt solar panel could easily supply all the power needed for an all electric home anywhere in the continental United States or Hawaii. (100W/sec = 3600WH/hour or 3 times the average electricity used in homes in the United States; allowing at least 6 hours daylight that is 21,600 WH/day or 648,000 WH/month; see why I do not understand the power output of a solar panel.)