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BasvanS t1_ixzgp1j wrote

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

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.)

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GWtech t1_iy97db1 wrote

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.

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BasvanS t1_iy9b8w6 wrote

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.

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