Solar Sailor commuter ferry for Hong Kong Jockey Club

On Friday 25th June 2010, The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) officially launched the first commercial 'parallel' hybrid solar passenger ferry service in the world.

The Solar Sailor design is similar to the hybrid car in that diesel engines and the electric motors both drive the propellers. The catamaran has 2 x 190/25kW SS Hybrid Marine Power (HMP) systems ie 2 x 190kW (250 hp) diesel engines giving a service speed of 17 knots fully loaded plus 2 x 25kW (33.5hp) electric motors for speeds of 7 knots or less while manoeuvring and berthing. It has 6kW of solar panels on the roof and a 32kW generator.

During independent trials undertaken of the first vessel over a 9 day trial period in foggy conditions, fuel consumption using diesel engines only was measured by flow meters and compared with consumption using both the diesel and electric motors on the same routes. The boat was run as a diesel boat with the HMP system turned off versus itself with the HMP system turned on ie electric motors used for low speeds and docking.

OTHER ADVANTAGES of the solar hybrid boats are:-
Zero emission operation whenever in electric mode
Redundancy of power ie there are two completely separate systems driving the propellers providing an instant alternative if one system should fail. For example, in the event of diesel fuel contamination the electric motors could still operate and if the electric system failed the vessel would still operate normally in conventional diesel mode
Lower GHG, noxious gas and particulate emissions
Potential access to environmentally sensitive routes

About Solar Sailor Holdings, Ltd.
Solar Sailor is an Australian public unlisted company that owns patented 'solarsail' technology - single devices that can harvest wind and solar energy and hybrid marine power (HMP) technology suitable for a variety of applications from small unmanned vessels, to ferries, cruisers and bulk carriers. The company has completed contracts for the design and supply of technology to ferry operators in Shanghai and Hong Kong and the company's USA minority owned subsidiary UOV LLC in Virginia has a contract with the US Navy for the development of unmanned ocean vehicles over the next 18 months.

For more information, visit http://www.solarsailor.com.au/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hybrid
• Marine
• power