For sale to the right government: a 400-meter-long potable water transporter, fueled by electric, solar, and wind power. No worry that the “Aquatanker,” designed by Australia’s Solar Sailor Holdings Ltd., has yet to be ordered and built. “The size of the concept needs vision from governments,” explains Solar Sailor CEO Robert Dane. Plus, the company has already experienced success with its similarly hybrid ferry, currently leased to Captain Cook Cruises, and recently signed a contract with the U.S. Navy to develop unmanned, open-ocean surveillance vehicles.
The Aquatanker would be as fast as an oil tanker—15 knots—but because of its solar sails, which could be as large as 1,000 square meters, it would use half the fuel and emit half the greenhouse gases. It would drop off its cargo of water at a single-point mooring—a large buoy with hose connections to a sub-sea pipeline to shore, and the mooring’s small size would relieve governments of buying land for pipelines or canals.
Dane says that Aquatankers would also create quality jobs, what with the skills and compensation crewmembers would need. But what really floats Dane’s boat is that because water is not a time-sensitive cargo, Aquatankers could sometimes go slower than oil tankers, and thereby shrink their carbon footprints even more. “We have the ability to save 85 percent of fuel at 10 knots—that’s very exciting,” Dane says.
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