T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] 1964 8 Metre Bobcat Catamaran Electric Drive

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Re: [Electric Boats] 1964 8 Metre Bobcat Catamaran Electric Drive

I don't know about considering them "decking" but most of your rigid framed solar panels can be walked on. The industry standard glazing is 3/16" (or it's metric equivalent), but you can get panels with 1/4" thick glass that does withstand hale much better and is probably better to walk on too. Here's a picture of two guys standing on the Solar Planet's array that looks like pretty standard rigid panels, http://www.planetsolar.org/

You can walk all over and jump up and down the flexible amorphous stuff, I even saw a demo where they shot a hole thru a panel with a 38 without any appreciable losses, but their efficiencies are so low, (about 5% or less) that they are not that great for boating applications.

Capt. Carter

www.shipofimagination.com

On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 11:58 AM, "Jeff LaCoursiere jeff@jeff.net [electricboats]" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

What about decking? Has anyone made anything durable enough to just *be* the deck? I've seen those new sheets with half globe bubbles that might even be decent traction :)

j

On 6/18/2014 10:33 AM, Dominic Amann dominic.amann@gmail.com [electricboats] wrote:

Gentlemen, thank you.

I recognize your enthusiasm and commitment to clean solar energy, and I share your desire to use only the most efficient cells considering that boats have very limited space for deployment.

Thank you for raising the issue, the discussion has jogged me into doing some basic research myself.

Firstly, I am only concerned about the whole panel. I don't care what the cell efficiency is if it doesn't translate into panel efficiency. I do see that SunPower lead the pack in cell and power efficiency these days. I also see that Sanyo are in the top tier with their panels. This could be the effect of their hybrid technology which performs better at high temperatures.

So - in actual practice, it may come down to a combination of factors rather than which measure the highest efficiency in the laboratory. Are you mostly in cloudy conditions or do you get a lot of full sun? What are your temperature curves like? How does the panel perform if a shadow falls across its middle? Are you willing to pay a significant premium for a conditional performance improvement? That may depend on your local conditions.

Then there are non-traditional ways of using solar. There are new flexible and translucent panels. These could possibly be stitched into dodgers, bimini covers or even sails - but they would be lower efficiency types - but not as awkward or intrusive as standard panels which require precious horizontal space.