myne t1_ixynt4w wrote on November 27, 2022 at 12:18 PM

Reply to comment by GWtech in Record efficiency of 26.81% for large silicon solar cells by Wagamaga

Interesting. It makes me wonder if some boats will move to at least partially electric motors. Keep the diesel for when it's needed.

BasvanS t1_ixzgp1j wrote on November 27, 2022 at 4:33 PM

Batteries are still expensive, heavy, and motors are energy intensive. While you could replace ballast in sailboats for batteries because you use the engine maneuvering and going in and out of harbors, if you’re only using it a few weeks/weekends a year, I’m not sure it’s worth the transition. I’d stay with diesels for propulsion.

But having on board electricity taken care of by one or two solar panel will make life so much more comfortable on board.

(I’m big on advocating EV driving and home energy management systems, but I just don’t see boats as low hanging fruit right now. However, if you want to, there’s no one stopping you.)

GWtech t1_iy97db1 wrote on November 29, 2022 at 6:16 PM

But here's what you're missing. You don't need a lot of batteries anymore. When you can buy thousands of watts of solar panels for dirt cheap and you don't need to worry about storing a lot of that electricity and batteries. You can get yourself one 100 amp hour lithium iron phosphate battery for $300 and that thing will last you longer than your life. Literally. Those 100 amp hours will be plenty to run anything except a massive electric heater all night. And with daytime solar panels you won't be draining the battery at all you'll be stuffing it full of electricity while you're using all of your appliances inside. So since solar panels have gotten so cheap it's better to just buy a lot more solar panels and you just don't need to have many batteries anymore. That's the big change.

BasvanS t1_iy9b8w6 wrote on November 29, 2022 at 6:41 PM

We’re talking propulsion here. I agree on the rest, but boats can’t self-rely on solar for propulsion, except for sailboats perhaps.

For the rest indeed it’s a no brainer.

GWtech t1_iy973pm wrote on November 29, 2022 at 6:15 PM

Go to any sailboat Marina and you'll find huge numbers of owners are pulling out their diesels and installing electric motors and or many are buying torquedo electric outboards to use when navigating into and out of marina.

The big catamaran makers are switching to solar covering their roof area with panels which gives them enough to navigate purely by solar without draining the batteries and still even charge the battery so they can continue to operate overnight. I actually expect catamarans to get rid of sails pretty much completely and go pure solar as for most latitudes the solar is a guarantee much more than the wind.