Silent 55 – Solar Powered Catamaran

The Silent 55 solar powered catamaran has been announced and will debut at the 2019 Cannes Yachting Festival. The 2019 model is twice as powerful as the 2018 model with the Austrian manufacturer advising that one has already been build and 3 more are on order.

Silent 55 – Solar Powered Catamaran

“Our best-selling 16.7m innovative solar electric catamaran has been upgraded and become even better than it used to be,” says Michael Köhler, Silent-Yachts founder and CEO. “We did these updates and changes because we always try to improve and to install the best and latest technology available to satisfy our clients. We have built one new Silent 55 already and we’ve got three more orders for this model, which shows that we’re heading in the right direction.”

The Silent 55 includes 30 high-efficiency solar panels rated for approximately 10 kilowatt-peak. The catamaran uses MPPT (maximum power point tracking ) solar charge regulators and lithium batteries, allowing it to cruise through all the way through the evening (i.e. when the sun’s not shining) as well. 

A 15-kVA inverter provides the required power for household appliances. The electrical system also powers an aft swim platform and a 1,500-watt electric windlass. There is also a generator on board in case you run out of solar power. 

According to Robb Report the base price of the Silent 55 is €1.4m. Interested? Go check it out at the Cannes Yachting Festival or click here to learn more about the solar catamaran on the Silent Yachts website. And take me for a spin, please! 

Silent 55 Specifications

Length overall 16,70 m (54.8‘)
Beam overall 8,46 (27.7‘)
Draft 1,20 m (3.9‘)
Light displacement 19 tons
Water 500 – 1.000 L
Waste-Water 2 x 500 L
Fuel 500 – 1.600 L
Solar Panels 10 kWp
E-Motors 2 x 30 kW / 2 x 250 kW
Generator 22 kW / 100 kW
Battery Capacity 120 kWh
Cruising Speed 6 – 8 kt / 12 – 15 kt
Top Speed approx. 12 kt / 20 kt
CE Certification CE-A
Range Trans-Ocean

 

Silent 55 the Solar Powered Catamaran (source: RobbReport.com via Silent-Yachts)
Silent 55 the Solar Powered Catamaran (source: RobbReport.com via Silent-Yachts)

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MS Tûranor PlanetSolar – Solar Boat

The world’s biggest solar powered boat, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, has been donated to the Swiss-based Race for Water Foundation. The €15 million boat was financed by a German entrepreneur, built by Knierim Yachtbau and holds two records: the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by solar boat and the longest distance ever covered by a solar electric vehicle.

MS Tûranor PlanetSolar

MS Turanor Planetsolar
MS Turanor Planetsolar (source: gearpatrol.com)

Tthe name Tûranor is an Elvish term created by J.R.R. Tolkien meaning “power from the sun.” Developed in 2010, the Swiss company PlanetSolar created the ship, which can travel around 5 knots. In May 2012, it became the first solar electric vehicle ever to circumnavigate the globe. Expedition leader and founder of the PlanetSolar project was Swiss eco-adventurer Raphaël Domjan.

The photovoltaic cells have a yield of 22.6 percent and almost cover the whole deck. Unlike the majority of solar panels, they can support the weight of a human: up to 80kg per square meter.

According to Autoblog, the PlanetSolar measures 115 feet long, 75 feet wide. It has a max speed of 16 mph and its 2 electric motors provide 60 kW of energy each. The boat has over 5,500 square feet of solar panels which supply power to 8.5 tons of lithium-ion batteries. All this and the boat is environmentally friendly and doesn’t produce any emissions (which means it’s perfect for performing experiments out at sea!)

As discussed, BusinessInsider is reporting that the boat has been donated to the Race for Water Foundation, who will use it as a mobile laboratory for scientific missions to raise awareness about renewable energy.

If you want to read more, the story of Tûranor PlanetSolar can be found in Kevin Desmond’s 280-page Electric Boats and Ships: a History published by McFarland Books.

If this was built in 2018, you wonder how much more effective it could be. We’ll no doubt see its successor at some point – it’ll be amazing to see how much more powerful our solar panel technology is!

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