JUN 01

Ever find yourself relaxing by a lake only to have a loud, obnoxiously high-powered boat zoom by, and all the beauty of the lake is dissipated when you think about how much nasty pollution that boat just inserted in the water? Makes you not even want to dip your toes in, let alone eat that freshly-caught fish.

The Dutch have created the Czeers MK1 – the first solar-powered speed boat – which will help bridge a friendship between the love of speed and the love of the environment.

We’ve seen solar-powered boats around here before, but nothing as zippy as this. Reaching speeds of 30 knots and producing far less noise and pollution than its peers, this boat is 33 feet long and is covered in 150 square feet photovoltaic cells.

It’s pricy (a measly $1.1 million), but if you are torn between wanting the wind through your hair and your eco-conscience, then this boat could be worth the extra dough. It is definitely a luxury boat, as the creators added top-of-the-line features like leather interior and touch-screen-based control systems. Okay, so these elements take quite a bit away from the eco-friendliness of it, but still, progress is progress. At least the solar-step has been made to get those conspicuous consumers on board. Now they can start working on better choices for construction materials.

And if you can’t afford this speed boat, there is always the solar-powered bicycle boat that you can pedal around the pond.

See it in action or check out more images at CzeersSolarboats

Via Uberreview, Engadget

Comments (14)

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Can't help it
written by Karsten, June 02, 2008

My students make this mistake all the time too:

peddle v. , -dled , -dling , -dles . v.tr. To travel about selling (wares): peddling goods from door to door.
pedal v. ,1 : to ride a bicycle 2 : to use or work a pedal

Karsten

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30 knots is not 55 mph!
written by stinkycheese, June 02, 2008

It's 35. 1 knot = 1.15 mph. Still, this is awesome. My heart's set on a sailboat, my fiancee's is on a... quicker... boat, so this would be a nice compromise. Now I just need that millionaire girlfriend.

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so?
written by Andy, June 02, 2008

great... $1.1 mil on a waste of solar panels. Put them on my house instead, I don't need a speedboat regardless of if it is "green"

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...
written by Space, June 02, 2008

"14 square meters of solar panels and an 80kw electric motor"
That's clearly not enough solar panels to feed that motor. You'd need at least 10 times more panels.
There is something fishy here.

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Trade off?
written by John thomas, June 02, 2008

Hmmm, 1.1 MIL for 30 knots? Nah, I dont think so.

JJ
http://www.FireMe.To/udi

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Jawesome !
written by B.Rock, June 02, 2008

the whole "green" idea is doing for the environment, what the spice girls and 'girl power' did for gender equality.

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...
written by Bob Fields, June 02, 2008

The concept is right. With many innovations the first to market are expensive. Look at the drop in cost for a laptop computer when it made it to mass market. We nedd green power and boating has to adaptto innovative sources of power for non sail boaters.When solar boats drop down to a high five figures you will see a market for them. I see more boats still in the boat yards this year than ever before . Fueling up a modest power boatwith a 100 gallon tank is now over $800.

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...
written by kc, June 02, 2008

@Karsten: His use of "pedal" is correct. What grade do you teach? And where?

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...
written by dan, June 02, 2008

@kc I think the author fixed it (changed from peddle to pedal)

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Nasty pollution inserted in the water -
written by Rob, June 02, 2008

Boats don't actually "insert nasty pollution in the water", unless they are actually leaking fluids. Noise pollution, yes. Nasty water contaminating pollutants, not so much. I doubt one can achieve the power density required to power a speed boat from solar cells. Oh and 35 knots is way slower than your average speed boat.

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...
written by jacob, June 03, 2008

hey at least the company making solar panels got a large order, that's a good thing.

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good report
written by jonathan, June 10, 2008

very good report :) ;) :D ;D >:( :( :o 8) :P :- :-*

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Powerboats
written by SeaDragon, January 16, 2009

Interesno :)

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To lay aloft in a howling gale ...
written by Roger, April 20, 2009

We've already got environmentally friendly boats, they are wind powered! You're at the mercy of mother earth for your top speed on any given day, but the record is over 50 knots.

I also have to second some of the scepticism mentioned above. 80 kW (107 hp) is about right for a 30 knot speedboat (i.e., a fairly slow one), but 150 sq. ft. (14 m^2) of solar panels can't possibly produce anything like that much. That's 5700 W/m^2, which is more than 4 times what you could get with 100% efficient conversion on a satellite outside the atmosphere.

Current in-lab record is 440 W/m^2 in ideal conditions, and a more realistic result is 190 W/m^2 in perfect weather (and woe betide if you are far from shore when a squall gathers: not a good time to have near zero available power!)

So to get 80 kW from PV cells that are actually available at present, even in perfect weather, you would need about 440 m^2 of cells, not 14 m^2.

Their numbers are so far off-base, I have to wonder if it's a scam.

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