Solar Powered Boats

Go anywhere with a solar yacht.

Solar Powered Boats have become the norm among serious cruisers. Turn your boat into a solar yacht with the addition of a solar system.

Solar Power for Boats

If you're looking for self sufficiency on the water a solar powered boat just may be the answer

Power your boat without the negative environmental impact of running an engine at anchor. Solar yachts have all the power needed to live comfortably aboard for a week, a month or years, all provided by a few solar panels.

No more starting the engine and polluting pristine anchorages with carbon emissions and noise. A solar powered boat silently soaks up the sun and converts it to clean energy that powers all of your necessities. Some of the benefits of a solar powered boat are:

• Fuel savings
• Doesn't increase engine hours
• Blessed silence for you and your neighbors
• No carbon emissions
• No fuel cost
• No moving parts to fail

Here's what you'll need to turn your vessel into a solar powered boat.

• Solar panels


• Deep cycle batteries (lead acid or gel cell)


• Charge Controller - The charge controller prevents the batteries from becoming over or under charged. Also called a regulator.


• Inverter - If you use electronics that require 110V the inverter will convert the 12V (which is what the panels produce) into 110V (which is what your computer and most of your appliances want)


• Link Monitor - This is not absolutely necessary but it gives up-to-the-minute information about how much energy you have stored and how much you're producing.


• Assorted wire, hardware and fittings

The number and size of solar panels required depends on how much electricity an individual boat uses. Throw in variables like geographic location, time of year and electronics on board and the issue can become very fuzzy. Here's what we have on our boat, "Pacific Jade", which is pictured above.

Factors that influence the number of watts required:

• Electrical equipment on board
• Where the boat is located
• Time of year (the angle of the sun)
• Refrigeration.
• Water temperature
• Air temperature

The closer you are located to the equator the more of the sun's rays strike the panels. This obviously translates into more power production per panel. The panels work most efficiently when the sun is high overhead (from 1000 hrs to 1500 hrs. (10am to 3pm)

Some tips that help make solar powering your boat as efficient as possible.

• Let the sun shine in. Keep panels clean, wipe visible dust and dew from the surface.



Tip

We lined the inside of our fridge with that silver bubble stuff used for blocking the sun inside windshields.

They're easy to cut to fit and stay in place once established; easy to clean too.

• Position panels where they are least likely to be shaded by the boat's rigging, dodger. bimini, sails, etc. (or use your solar panels as a bimini). Usually one of our four panels is shaded and we have accounted for this by purchasing a little more wattage than we actually need.


• Mount panels on a multi directional bracket on top of a stainless steel pole. The ability to adjust your panels to face the sun can provide almost 50% more power from each panel.


• When replacing electronics, purchase the most energy efficient models available, particularly the fridge. The less energy you use the fewer watts of solar panel you'll need.


• Keep your batteries well maintained.

To the right is a photo of one of our buddy boats "Grey Max". Her solar array consists of 8 pv panels and in the center is a solar water heater.

Grey Max is so self sufficient that her owners don't even plug in when they're at the dock.

Note that the panels are mounted over the cockpit to shade the occupants and to allow the panels to freely access the sun with few obstructions.

Expect to pay around $350.00 per 85 watts for new panels. New technology promises to bring down the price of solar panels in the very near future.

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