Help the Solar Boat to Southern France!
From 2-6 July 2019 we, the Delft D: Dreamteam Solar Boat, will be the only Dutch team participating in the World Championship for solar boats in open sea; The Solar & Energy Boat Challenge in Monaco! It is the first time that a Delft D: Dreamteam has taken on a challenge with a solar boat at the open sea, a unique experience. With our smart techniques we go for victory in Monaco!
The Solar Boat has already been designed and is being produced at the moment. It will be fully driven by solar power and has a solar deck with a surface of 28m2. Before we launch the Solar Boat in the beautiful port of Monaco we need to take one more threshold; our Solar Boat has to be transported to the South of France.
Are you willing to help?
Since the transport of the entire Solar Boat would cover no less than two lanes on the highway we have conducted a modular design allowing the boat to be transported in three parts. We need a second trailer for the transport and we need your help to purchase it!
Are you helping the entire boat on its way to our final destination in Monaco, 1570 kilometres from here? Your donation helps the solar boat a few kilometres closer to the the final destination and helps us purchasing the second trailer.
Help us with the purchase of the second trailer so that our Solar Boat can arrive in the South of France on the 2th of July!
Our team
The TU Delft Solar Boat team is one of the D: Dreamteams on the campus of TU Delft and is located in the D: Dream Hall. Our team consists of 28 ambitious students with different study backgrounds at the TU Delft. We complete the entire process of design, production and the race within one year.
Eight Solar Boat teams have preceded in the past and our current team faces the challenge to participate for the first time on the open sea and has the ambition to become the world champion!
The race
The race in Monaco consists of two different stages. The first stage is from Monaco to Ventimiglia (IT) and back and has a length of about 30 kilometers. The second stage consists of a length of 93 kilometers, from Monaco to Cannes (FR) and back.
To become the world champion, we need to win both stages against other student teams, companies and private persons. Some participating teams have fast speed boats, but we believe that we are even faster and make use more efficiently of the available solar energy with our smart technologies.
The design of our boat consists or a trimaran for three people who can sail solely on solar energy, using the wing technique. The surface of the solar is 28m2!
Technical facts
The solar cells
The boat has no less than 1097 solar cells and has a solar deck of 28,4m2! Enough to charge 2033 mobile phones with solar energy.
Propulsion
To become the world champion, good propulsion is of great importance. Together with the strut and the wings underneath the boat, the powertrain ensures that the boat is capable of taking off and flying. This means lesser use of energy and more velocity on the water!
Sailing on the open sea
To stably sail on the big waves on the open sea, a design is created with two L-shaped wings at front and a T-shaped wing at the back. Thanks to the higher density of water compared to air, the L-wings are only 1 meter wide and the T-wing is just 1,4 meters wide.
Our team has designed a cooling system to ensure that the parts of the boat do not get overheated. This system ensures that every component functions at its own optimal temperature.
The cooling system makes use of two different techniques.
Open technique
The relatively cold seawater flows into the two fronts truts, is being pumped through the side hills passes the middle hull before it flows back into the sea. This enables the cooling of the parts around the middle hull.
Closed technique
here is a closed system that cools the engine and battery in the middle hull. We use hypermodern nano fluids that have recently been developed by the TU Delft. This technology is up to three times more efficient than a standard coolant!