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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: A Solar-Powered Boat Inspires Local Sailor
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| John Wenz (center) and the boat's founders |
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| Solar panels on top power the boat |
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| The Sun 21 powers past the Statue of Liberty |
May 14, 2007
A local sailor went to sea and came back with a vision of a solar-powered boat that he thinks will take off in the Hudson Valley.
John Wenz, who is the head of the village’s riverfront revitalization committee and a marine surveyor, was the co-skipper of Sun 21, the first transatlantic solar-powered boat, as it made the last 500 miles of its voyage into New York harbor last Wednesday. Now he has set himself the goal of establishing a solar-powered water taxi to ply the Hudson River during the Fulton-Hudson celebration in 2009.
The Sun 21, a 45-foot long catamaran, reflects the vision of several Europeans who were inspired by the idea of a crossing the Atlantic in an environmentally friendly solar boat. A crew that included the project’s creators, as well as a biologist and a physician, followed Christopher Columbus’s voyage from Spain through the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, where it made educational stops at several islands. It then headed to Florida and up the east coast of the United States to New York.
Wenz was contracted to help chart the boat through the busy East Coast intra-coastal waterways into New York harbor where the boat was on display as part of a welcoming ceremony at Battery Park. One of the ship’s crew went on to speak to the United Nations about the accomplishment of the solar-powered boat.
The catamaran operates on two electric engines. The solar panels run the engines directly during the day and they also charge batteries that are used to operate the engines at night. During the 7,000-mile voyage, the 11-ton boat used the amount of energy generated by 17 100-watt light bulbs and not a drop of oil. It could average about 100 nautical miles a day.
“It was a life-changing experience for me to spend two weeks with these very intelligent people and be part of this project,” Wenz says. “When we were in the waterway, wherever we went, people would applaud.” Wenz says he would love to see a marina full of solar-powered boats collecting power that could be put into a local power grid when the boats were not in use.
“The boat is quiet, there is no exhaust, and your experience on the water is so much better,” Wenz notes. “I’ve seen in action that this concept works.”
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