Solar at Sea: Chinese Cargo Ships Will Have Solar Sails

Solar at Sea: Chinese Cargo Ships Will Have Solar Sails

www.dailygalaxy.com

The Australian company, Solar Sailor, has signed a deal with the largest Chinese shipping line COSCO to outfit their tankers with large solar-powered sails controlled by a computer that angles them for maximum wind and solar efficiency and the company claims that the sails will pay for themselves within four years.

The sails are 30 meters long, covered with solar PV panels that will provide 5 percent of the ships' electricity and will harness enough wind to reduce fuel costs by 20 to 40 percent

(visit the link for the full news article)

It's taken us a while to get to this stage; I'm sure some would say it's taken too long; but I still think this is a fantastic innovation and combination of two technologies and worlds: the sail, one of our oldest achievements and the solar cell, one of our more recent achievements.

Whether we believe the man made global warming theories or not, at least some good technologies, and applications of them, are coming out of it.

There is one worrying comment in the article: it mentions that attention will soon be focussed on the air industry. I hope they apply panels to aircraft bodies and not sails...

www.dailygalaxy.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 10/11/08 by Rapacity]

Originally posted by RapacityThere is one worrying comment in the article: it mentions that attention will soon be focussed on the air industry. I hope they apply panels to aircraft bodies and not sails...

You might be interested in the following article which, after much research and writing, I have managed to find at this URL on the net.

At Soso Sailor, we considered an arrangement of panels over the cockpit of the aircraft, standing proud and golden like the crest of our favourite symbol, the flying Cocky. However Chinese officials vehemently protested at the idea of having their skies filled with massive Aussie Cockies, and their government had to choose between siding with the officials or confiscating their organs.

Instead, we have agreed to a compromise. Again relying on the lessons of nature, in the belief that if God didn't already invent it, it shouldn't exist, we looked to the kangaroo for an answer. Watching Skippy hop away instead of answering, we realised God had, after all, answered our prayers. Calling short plane trips hops was obviously a prophecy the Lord has caused to be written into history.

We are now working on the Planeroo and the Kangacoptor. These will be fitted with extremely long legs, longer even than those on the girls on Baywatch, and built from the super elastic, high tensile lignofibre being developed from the few remaining Eucalypts that have survived the drought. Each foot will be tipped with 4 footpads, constructed from inverted trampolines packed with resilient, super-strength Fosters Foam.

Having calculated footy grounds would provide an ideal surface for the bounce-pads, the legs have been constructed to manage leaps of up to 10 k, (5 miles). In case some nations don't have at least one footy ground every 10k, the Planeroo will be equipped with a supply of Eucalyptus oil Fuel/Air bombs guaranteed to create one instantly.

Soso Sailor looks forward to bringing these new vehicles to your town in the near future.

An explanation of the new technology being used in the Planeroo:

The unusual development of the hind legs is optimised for economical long distance travel at moderate to high speed. The famous kangaroo hop is not simply a matter of having strong legs: kangaroos and wallabies have a unique ability to store elastic strain energy in their tendons. In consequence, most of the energy required for each hop is provided "free" by the spring action of the tendons (rather than by muscular effort). The main limitation on a macropod's ability to leap is not the strength of the muscles in the hindquarters: the greatly elongated foot provides enormous leverage and the key factor is the ability of the joints and tendons to stand up under the strain of hopping.

In addition, there is a linkage between the hopping action and breathing. As the feet leave the ground, air is expelled from the lungs by what amounts to an internal piston; bringing the feet forward ready for landing fills the lungs again, providing further energy efficiency. Studies of kangaroos and wallabies have demonstrated that, beyond the minimum energy expenditure required to hop at all, increased speed requires very little extra effort (much less than the same speed increase in, say, a horse, a dog, or a human), and also that little extra energy is required to carry extra weight — something that is of obvious importance to females carrying large pouch young.