Solar boat 2

Concept

Building a solar boat is a good way too experiment the use of photovoltaic solar cells.

Solar boats are an ecological means of transportation because they use the sun, a renewable and environmental friendly energy. In order to navigate by night and when the sun is too weak, solar boats generally store electricity in batteries (this is unfortunately not the case of this DIYs project which can only work in direct sunlight...). The weight of the batteries is less problematic than for cars or solar planes because boats are capable to carry heavy loads with a small amount of energy.

This type of boat is still uncommon in real life. But on the lake of Geneva, the "Aquarel solar boats" can be hired. The large Swiss catamaran PlanetSolar completed in may 2012 a 60'000 km world tour, only with the help of solar energy.

Basic material and freedom of design

The two basic elements to build a solar boat are a good solar cell (possibly waterproof) and an electric motor (compatible with the cell).

Concerning the boat itself, it is interesting to leave the children free to invent the model of their choice. That way, they are encourage to use their imagination and experiment different designs. Their first model built, they can always reuse the solar cell and the motor to create other types of boats.

To help them to express all their creativity, they should be offered a wide choice of material (We give some examples further on).