Eco Factor: Battery-powered boat uses solar panels for a recharge.
Alan Belle, an engineering lecturer at the Australian Maritime College, and his team have developed a battery-powered, solar-assisted boat dubbed the Greenliner. The designers of this boat hope that the boat can be put to mass production within a year.
With the current technology, Greenliner is able to travel for seven hours covering about 35 nautical miles. Belle states that their aim is to improve the range and the speed with the use of lightweight lithium polymer batteries that promise about eight times the speed or eight times the traveling time and range. The team believes that the mass produced model of the boat will be a weekend boat that recharges its batteries during the five working days on solar panels and can be taken our during weekends.
The Dark Side:
The current specifications of the boat mean that it’s nowhere near to mass production. 35 nautical miles is not what one would want to travel in nine hours. If lithium polymer batteries don’t increase the proposed cost of the boat by much, then we surely have a future here, else we would still want “1Liaison” to be commercialized.
Via: Examiner
