PlanetsWater meets 'Planet Solar'...... Phuket, Thailand!
PHUKET: The MS Turanor PlanetSolar, the first solar-powered boat to attempt a circumnavigation of the globe, arrived at Phuket’s Ao Po Marina, en route to the Indian Ocean and the final legs of its 57,000-kilometer expedition.
The voyage began on September 27, 2010 in Monaco and has been mapped with stopovers along the equator, where the boat can exploit the maximum amount of sunlight as it rounds the Earth.
The four-man crew have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, navigated the Panama Canal and sailed the Pacific Ocean, and are now heading for the Suez Canal on their way to the Mediterranean to complete their historic journey.
The MS Turanor multihull is topped by a massive array of photovoltaic solar panels that when fully deployed cover an area of 537 square meters.
At 31 meters long, 15m wide and 6.1m high, and weighing in at 95 tons, it is the biggest solar boat ever built, taking 14 months to construct at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel, Germany.
The project began in 2004 with the idea of promoting and investigating sustainable energy sources through future technologies.
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