New Zealand's Auckland based LOMOcean Design is enjoying it's moment in the sun as the vessel it designed, the 31 metre Turanor Planetsolar has just become the first to travel around the world using solar energy.The US$12.5 million dollar catamaran finished its 60,019 kilometre journey in Monaco last week after 584 days of travel.
And that's faster than a Flying Tortoise.
It required 23 kilowatt hours of power to drive the 95 tonne vessel around the globe at 6 knots.
This is a maritime and technological triumph of historic importance.
The mission was the brainchild of Swiss Engineer Raphael Domjan, who with German businessman, Immo Stroher and New Zealand's Craig Looms LOMOcean Design, created the vessel that was launched in the German shipyard of Knierim Yachtbau in 2010.
The deck has a massed array of 537 sq metres of solar panels feeding state of the art lithium ion batteries.
When the sun wasn't shining the vessel had to rely on its batteries or wait for the sun to recharge its system.
In terms of using solar energy for significant transport, it's still very much in its infancy but it's a great start...
