Wind Power Yachts
Click Here to register and get your Free “Squidoo Lens Creation for Newbies”
Could A Yacht Be Fully Electric?
There are 2 ways this could work.
For both ideas however, solar panels will be placed on the boat.. I could see 4-6 5 by 5 foot long panels fitting in various locations. There also could be a wind turbine, or two up by the radar area on the top of the yacht.
The solar panels would simply charge up the batteries, which would be used for propulsion.
-OR-
Solar panels and wind turbines would produce power to extract Hydrogen and Oxygen from water. The hydrogen would either be used in a fuel cell, or combusted.
The only problems I see is the power the panels and turbines produce, being able to move a yacht, the Hydrogen idea seems pretty practical.
Wind generator are most useful on a boat, followed by solar panels mounted on a Bi-mini or similar – solar panels are useless in the shade, so for the expense you make sure you can get max power out of them for the 25 – 40% of the day they can work. Normally mounted on adjustable racks to point at the sun manually therefore. A direct charging system should be fitted to the highly efficient main diesel engine. The power required to produce meaningful amounts of hydrogen is astounding. You have to generate more power than you will get in the hydrogen – It is not cost effective until scaled up to large scale supply systems. Fuel cells are now available that are very efficient – bit pricey though but silent and tireless – used to charge batteries rather than run base load.
At this moment with off the shelf equipment a hybrid system is the cost effective option – several layers of renewable and fuel run power producing technologies are combined to give real world useful supply. You could consider only using bio-diesel for the main engine and genny.
Unusual Catamaran with Wind Turbine Propulsion in Guernsey
