By Marta Falconi | The Wall Street Journal
Solar-powered products, like calculators and wrist watches, have been around for decades. Now, a handful of projects around the world are attempting to prove that clean, renewable energy can be applied to transportation. Dow Jones Newswires reporter Marta Falconi joins digits.
A Swiss solar-powered boat is sailing up the East Coast this week as part of a scientific voyage that will take it across the Atlantic Ocean, the latest in a series of international efforts to power vehicles with sunshine.
The MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, whose 5,000 square feet of solar panels make it look like a floating mirror, is powered exclusively by energy captured from sunlight and engineered to require as little power as possible. The €12 million ($15.9 million) Tûranor—owned by businessman and solar-technology enthusiast Immo Ströher—uses a catamaran design, a shape that reduces drag and maximizes the size of its sun deck. The 102-foot-long boat is carrying eight people on its current mission and can host as many as 20 people for a short daytime cruise.
