Water transportation is one of the major modes of commuting to the local in the various parts of the world. Along with ferries, smaller motorboats to hand-peddled ones it can be said that a minor portion of the humans in and around the world use them as one of the primary modes of travel. Driving all these people on diesel or petrol will be costing the authorities billions and just think about the pollutants that they are emitting both into the air as well as the water bodies.
This blog will provide an insight on solar-powered boats which was a long non-achievable dream and has been done effectively with a fully functional commercial one.
What if these boats could be run in solar, like the fact that they are always exposed to sunlight in the daytime and the power generation would be easy and cheaper. This is exactly what the Kerala state water transport department has done through solar-powered ferry boats named Adithya. Adithya solar boat or ferry is the first of its kind to be operational in the world. Moreover, it is way too advanced with a capability of movement with the capacity of around 23 tonnes of weight and the capability to occupy 75 passengers and 3 crew members.
As from the estimate from being operational for the past three years the Adithya has been responsible for saving more than 26417 gallons (100000 liters) of diesel which would have cost a ton lot of money and increased the pollution levels. Furthermore, with the huge success of the Adithya solar boat, the authorities are willing to further proceed with the solar boat project converting more than 45 of the desial powered boats into solar-powered ones gradually in the upcoming years.
The technology could be said as the innovative combination of solar energy, advanced naval architecture, electronic transmission as well as advancement in electricity storage using photovoltaic batteries. Making the daily operational cost to about 1/40 of using diesel power transmissions. Moreover, an environment-friendly transmission without any form of emission and pollutant generation.
So the question arises in your mind about safety as at last it's a boat traveling through the backwaters of Kerala which are way too deep and even to add to your concern it's electric. Don't you worry about those kinds of aspects as it has been professionally tested and as per all the governmental regulations. Not only that it's built under the Indian registry of shipping rules for inland vessels and operating conditions of the region it was tested, studied, and surveyed by the Indian registry of shipping. In addition to that the boat is continuously monitored remotely and up to a certain level if troubleshooting can also be done from the remote station set up in the manufacturing company as well as the Department office.
The safety features even include the full potential of operation even with more than the mentioned number of passengers as mentioned above on board. However, the administration has limited the maximum passenger number to 75 as mentioned earlier with an addition of 3 crew members. It is just a moderate number for routine operations. In addition, warning and safety mechanisms operating in three levels will provide the operators and the crew with required suggestions and monitoring principles in case a problem arises.
Source: Wikipedia.
Features solar boat
Solar boats are one of the best advancements to make our earth one more step closer to a greener energy world with less pollution and complete reliability on renewable sources of energy and resources. Here are some of the key features of the solar power boat projects:
Pleasant and silent operation without harming the aquatic life as well as providing the passengers with joyful rides.
Null amount of pollutants being generated to both atmosphere as well as to the water bodies
Spacious and capability to improve the transmission capacity.
The limited number of mechanical parts making the maintenance operations easier and less costly.
Cost-efficient operation as the investment will be returned in less than 3 years of operation.
These are some of the key features of using solar-powered boats in operation as a public transport ferry or passenger vehicle.
What can we expect in the future regarding solar boats?
The answer to the question arises again from Kerala as the state has launched a solar water taxi service in Alappuzha considered as the Venice of Kerala with abundant inner backwaters and a must-visit location. The initiative is with the collaboration of the Tourism department providing silent, calm, and adorable boat rides using solar power boats as taxi services. Although, it has been initially launched to promote tourism and as the first initiative authorities are planning to use them as a regularized taxi service in Kochi as it will be a solution for people with the heavy traffic in one of the busiest towns of Kerala.
Hope that the venture will also be successful and the governmental organizations will promote even more initiatives on solar-powered boats and ferries.
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