Tûranor PlanetSolar
Tûranor PlanetSolar in the port of Hamburg
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The Tûranor PlanetSolar (working name before the baptism PlanetSolar ) is a catamaran that was officially unveiled on February 25, 2010 and christened on March 31, 2010 , which is powered exclusively by solar energy . For this reason, the entire deck is made up of solar panels . It is currently the largest solar powered watercraft in the world .
history
The history of the ship goes back to 2004. At that time, the Swiss paramedic Raphaël Domjan decided to be the first person to circumnavigate the world in a solar boat. Together with his partner, the French politician and navigator Gérard d'Aboville , he developed the first ideas for this project. As early as the 1980s and 1990s, D'Aboville was the first person to cross the Atlantic and then the Pacific in a rowboat. The two initially planned to have a small ship built for two people. Then the Darmstadt entrepreneur and Wella heir Immo Ströher found out about the project through a press report. He convinced Domjan and d'Aboville to build a bigger boat. He also planned a professional communication strategy and a re-use concept.
The project, the total cost of which is expected to be around 15 million euros, was largely financed by Immo Ströher and its Swiss holding company Rivendell, which invests primarily in technologies in the fields of renewable energies , recycling and environmental protection . Ströher was one of the first entrepreneurs in Germany to promote solar energy. His support made the founding of the companies Solon, Q-Cells, Younicos and Grundgrün possible.
The futuristic design with one main and two side hulls comes from the New Zealand designer Craig Loomes, from the New Zealand company LomOcean Design .
The keel was laid in early 2009
The general contractor Knierim Yachtbau from Kiel was responsible for building the Tûranor PlanetSolar . The keel was laid at the beginning of 2009. The main hull and side panels had to be assembled in Hall 11 of the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) in Kiel, which was rented for this purpose , because they were too big for Knierim. On March 31, 2010 the catamaran was christened Tûranor PlanetSolar and launched into the Kiel Fjord . The launch and maiden voyage were originally planned for January. The construction costs amounted to about 12.5 million euros.
The lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Gaia Akkumulatorenwerke are part of a development plan by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft for energy storage and are also to be used on board non-nuclear submarines in the future.
The boat was presented to the public in May 2010 at the 821st Hamburg port birthday .
Renamed to Race for Water in 2015
The ship has been owned by the Swiss Race for Water Foundation , which is committed to protecting water , since 2015 . It was rebuilt and renamed Race for Water . During the renovation work, an electrolysis device , 25 pressure bottles, a compressor and a towing kite from Skysails with an area of 40 square meters came on board. Skysails has developed this new generation towing kite with an area of 40 m², which is operated up to 150 m high. Due to the height at sea, this corresponds to a sail of approx. 500 m² and 200 kW drive. This improves self-sufficiency and, under ideal conditions, doubles the speed of the ship. With the solar power, water is converted into hydrogen by electrolysis , which is stored in the pressure bottles. The 25 bottles store up to 200 kg of hydrogen at 350 bar, which is converted into more than 2,600 kWh of energy. This corresponds to almost four times the energy of 754 kWh contained in the batteries.
description
The catamaran construction is a so-called wave piercer - the two hulls do not run over the waves, but cut through them. The hull is 31 meters long, 15 meters wide and displaces around 95 tons. With the exception of a small bridge , almost the entire deck is made up of solar panels. In addition, there are extendable solar panels that are hydraulically extended via cables on starboard and port side and at the stern; this increases the length and width to 35 and 23 meters respectively. In total, a total collector area of 512 m² is achieved, consisting of 825 solar modules with 29,124 photovoltaic cells . The total output of the photovoltaic system is 93.5 kW.
The specialty of the ship is the drive. The catamaran is powered by four electric motors that act on two drive shafts. The drive energy is obtained exclusively from the solar modules. At night, the motors are powered by lithium-ion batteries that are housed in the floats . The batteries weigh 11.7 tons, store 1130 kWh and are the largest of their kind. There were no other additional drives, in 2015 the towing kite from Skysails was added.
Originally the Planetsolar was equipped with two CFRP propellers, which were twice the size of conventional propellers and operated at low speed. They were designed as surface propulsion. The rudder attached to the hull in the middle was only needed for the cruise . It was hoped that the surface drive and the adjustable propeller would result in greater efficiency and good steerability at the lowest possible speed by changing the torque of the individual propellers. This drive has not proven itself for cruises in waves that are common at sea. During maintenance work in early 2013, the drive was converted to a conventional, submerged drive with fixed 5-blade propellers and each with its own rudder. After the upgrade, the Planetsolar was able to beat its own record of 26 days for crossing the Atlantic by 4 days during its circumnavigation of the world.
The two motors have a total output of 120 kilowatts, which means an average speed of five knots (9 km / h) and a maximum speed of 14 knots (26 km / h). Two transverse rudders are also used for maneuvering in the harbor.
Everything on the ship, except for a gas stove , is powered by electricity from the solar panels.
The name Tûranor was derived from the Elven language of the JRR Tolkien and means power of the sun or victory of the sun .
Circumnavigation
With the aim of putting emission-free solar energy in the spotlight of the world, Tûranor PlanetSolar set out from Monaco on September 27, 2010 for the first circumnavigation of the world by a solar-powered ship. Overall, the route was chosen to be in constant proximity to the equator , because that is where the solar radiation is most intense. Two months later, the Tûranor PlanetSolar reached the American continent on its expedition around the world and docked in the port of Miami in the US state of Florida on November 27, 2010 . The subsequent milestone was the World Climate Conference of the UNFCCC in Cancun . Here the boat with its presence provided visible evidence of an efficient and future-oriented use of solar technology to improve the climate.
The Tûranor PlanetSolar was the first solar boat in the world to cross the Panama Canal in mid-January 2011 . Before starting the great Pacific crossing, a visit to the Galápagos Islands was on the program, made possible by a cooperation with the WWF , which has worked in close cooperation with national and local authorities, the public and private sector and the local population for over 40 Years for the preservation of the Galápagos Islands. The work of the WWF on the islands aims at sustainable development and provides for the maximum use of renewable energies, in particular as an essential building block for sustainable forms of tourism. In this context, the visit to Tûranor PlanetSolar on the Galápagos Islands paints a concrete picture of the technological possibilities that already exist in the field of renewable energies .
At the beginning of April 2011 the Tûranor PlanetSolar at Bora Bora had to interrupt the circumnavigation of the world for repair work due to damage to the propeller system. After a two-week stay, the circumnavigation of the world towards Tonga could be continued. At the end of May 2011, the solar boat moored in Brisbane after having passed the “center line” of the circumnavigation of the world on the leg from Tonga to New Caledonia. The global children and youth project PlanetSolar Relay for Hope was also launched in Brisbane . Children and young people around the world can express their wishes and ideas for a solar future.
After Tûranor PlanetSolar was the guest of honor at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January 2012 , the Gulf of Aden had to be crossed. In these waters the ship would have been easy prey for Somali pirates as it was too slow to travel in a convoy. Therefore, a security team was on board in this section, led by Christophe Keckeis , the former chief of the Swiss Army .
On May 4, 2012, the catamaran returned to Monaco after a journey of 60,000 kilometers. The boat took 584 days, 23 hours and 31 minutes to circumnavigate the world.
Records
61 days after departure from Monaco, the Tûranor PlanetSolar reached Miami , which with 26 days and 34 minutes was the fastest solar boat crossing the Atlantic. The previous record holder was the Sun21 with 26 days, 19 hours and 10 minutes.
On February 20, 2011, the Tûranor PlanetSolar announced another world record. At 9,904 nautical miles or 18,342 km from the starting point in Monaco, the largest solar boat in the world at the time had covered the longest distance ever covered by a vehicle using solar energy. From 2004 to that day, that record had been held by the Midnight Sun Solar Race Team , who drove 15,070 km across Canada and the United States in a solar car.
In 2013, the ship set its own record of circumnavigating the world from 2010 to 2012 when crossing the Atlantic. The ship covered the route from Gran Canaria to St. Martin in 22 days; During the circumnavigation of the world, it took 26 days for the route.
Technical data of the electrical components
The floats of the catamaran contain lithium-ion batteries weighing 11.7 tons . It should be the largest accumulators in non-military use worldwide.
| Solar panel area | 516 m² |
| Average engine power | 20 kilowatts |
| Maximum engine power | 120 kilowatts |
| Storage capacity of the batteries | 1,130 kWh (2,910 Ah at 388 V) |
photos
PlanetSolar during construction
Front view
Rear view
gangway
Extended solar panels
Former surface drive propellers
Official data sheet
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Das Boot ( Memento from April 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), PlanetSolar (accessed May 15, 2012)
- ↑ a b c With “grasshopper” towards the sun , article by Central Switzerland on Sunday , June 30, 2013
- ↑ a b SwissMotorboat, June 1, 2010: Around the world with the solar catamaran (PDF; 3.6 MB), inserted March 28, 2012
- ↑ Rider on the solar wave . In: Frankfurter Rundschau, November 9, 2009
- ↑ a b HDW press release, February 22, 2010: HDW tests new battery cells for submarines on the solar catamaran “PlanetSolar” , accessed May 22, 2013
- ↑ Sign against plastic in the sea: “Race for Water” has started - view from April 10, 2017, updated on April 13, 2017. Accessed on June 22, 2018
- ↑ Current overview on the homepage of the new owner. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 10, 2016 ; accessed on January 10, 2016 .
- ↑ Knierim Yachtbau, completed yachts: TÛRANOR PLANET SOLAR - Solar Catamaran ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed May 22, 2013
- ↑ Planetsea - Explanation of the disadvantages of the surface drive with photos of the new drive on the middle of the page. Retrieved August 10, 2014 .
- ↑ PlanetSolar Maintenance PlanetSolar, 2012–2013. In: youtube.com (video). Retrieved August 11, 2014 .
- ↑ PlanetSolar - four days faster across the Atlantic. Retrieved August 10, 2014 .
- ↑ Current overview on the homepage of the new owner. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 10, 2016 ; accessed on January 10, 2016 .
- ↑ Einstein : The floating solar power plant circumnavigating the world. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 21, 2014 ; Retrieved February 26, 2012 .
- ↑ Video today: Solar-powered ship goes on tour (September 27, 2010) in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on February 10, 2014. (offline)
- ↑ Before Bora Bora: Propeller damage stops Kiel Sun Ship ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Lübecker Nachrichten Online , April 7, 2011 (accessed April 9, 2011).
- ↑ PlanetSolar: Christophe Keckeis becomes head of security . In: Solarnews.ch. January 24, 2012 (accessed May 4, 2012).
- ↑ Keckeis advises Planet Solar . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 17, 2012 (accessed May 4, 2012).
- ↑ Hanna Gieffers: Arrival in Monaco: Solar boat can circumnavigate the world in 584 days . In: Spiegel Online . May 4, 2012
- ↑ Atlantic record cracked ( Memento from June 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , THB - Deutsche Schiffahrts-Zeitung , May 22, 2013. Retrieved on May 22, 2013.
- ^ Batteries ( Memento from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: turanor.eu . (accessed October 1, 2010)
swell
- Article about the christening of the ship ( Memento from April 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the Kieler Nachrichten
- Article about Planet Solar in the Süddeutsche Zeitung
