Japan Launches First Solar Cargo Ship
Spitted out by munky on December 29th, 2008. Filed under: TechJapan’s largest shipping company, Nippon Yusen, has unveiled a cargo ship outfitted with enough solar panels to produce 40 Kilowatts of power. Named the Auriga Leader, the energy comes from 328 solar panels outfitted on top of the ship which set the company back about $1.7 million dollars. While 40 Kilowatts is a huge sum house-wise, it really only produces enough energy to power about 7% of the lighting systems on board. But when one considers the size of the ship (frickin’ HUGE) it should save them quite bit down the road.
The companies hope having the panels on the carrier will protect them from the stresses of the ship’s environment, including salt-water damage, wind pressure, and vibrations.
nicholas
September 27th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hello,
I am a cadet at SUNY maritime college. I am taking a ship construction class, and have a 12 page paper to do on a specific car carrier. I was thinking about doing a paper on the aurriga leader. If you have any additional info that would be great
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