HOME

Solar Power for Boats & Yachts from MySolarPower

Just take a walk around any modern marina and you are likely to spot an array of Solar PV panels fitted to any number of the boats and yachts, as well as anticipated wind turbine technology.

With high levels of on-board electronics available today inclusive of communication systems, cooling systems, pumps and lighting, it creates a great opportunity to produce power without the need of the generator or engine being powered up.

Being out in the open and mostly away from shade it is an ideal opportunity for the boat owner to utilise the energy sources freely available and help keep the on-board batteries charged.

Boats equally tend to offer many ways of improving efficiency which in turn will reduce the anticipated loading on the battery systems – even simple changes such as switching to 12v CFL lighting can make a significant difference to the load – the greater these simple energy reducing savings can be made then a smaller battery bank and smaller solar panels may be used which will further ease the boats efficiency levels.

The solar panels will almost always need to be low profile as space on board is always at a premium.

Solar panels are quiet, have no on-going costs and of course, are environmentally friendly. Solar panels between 65W -130W are designed for marine applications particularly where power greedy appliances appear such as refrigerators. Smaller 40W rated solar panels are more suitable for weekend cruising and retaining the power of 12V batteries. The solar panels need to be flexible and linked to marine grade charge regulators.

There are solar flexi-panels out there that are just perfect for boats – lightweight but tough, shadow tolerant, and are well suited for trickle charging of 12V batteries, and because they are glass free solar panels they are capable of being mounted to the boat in almost any fashion. They are practically unbreakable, float and designed with harsh, wet and salty conditions in mind.

Most people who spend their time sailing or boating would tend to be the more practical types, so it should not be too difficult to install a boat solar panel system providing you can brush up on your physics and get the specification sorted. As stated earlier the best solution is possibly a combination of solar power and wind power. It is perfectly feasible by adding an inverter, to be rid of shore power altogether, but when calculating what size and how many solar panels you will need to power everything I would check with the manufacturers to ensure that you have covered everything.

Remember to determine where the boat will normally be moored when calculating as the level of sunshine hours per day will vary and that what will be sufficient solar panels in the height of summer will not apply in the middle of winter.

Just in case any of you cynics out there think that solar technology may not be for boats I was recently reading a couple of articles – the first from the BBC and titled “Serpentine solar boat to set sail”. This is about a 48 foot shuttle boat powered entirely by solar power and ferries up to 42 passengers at a time – when not in use and docked, surplus electricity is fed back into the National Grid. The designer Christoph Behling was behind the Hamburg Solarshuttle and there is now a sister ship operating on the Norfolk broads.

Secondly as follows “On 8th May 2007 the Swiss solar powered catamaran Sun21 arrived in New York at the end of a 7,000 mile journey from Basel in Switzerland. This is the first Atlantic crossing by a motorised boat using not one drop of oil. Sun21 was built by MW- Line SA and is powered by two 8kW Agni Motors. The 60 square metres of solar panels produce up to 44 kWh per day.

This achievement serves as a powerful example of responsible energy use in practice.  It also is impressive evidence of the suitability of solar technology for high-sea voyages.

	Solar Energy Partner Sites
Solar Energy Quotatis	Solar Energy	Solar Energy Wind Power
	Get Solar Leads