Coming Soon! World’s First Solar Powered Oil Tanker
August 26, 2008 – 5:23 pmJapan is building the world’s first shipping vessel to run on solar-energy. The 60,000 ton tanker will rely on solar panels capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity to power its massive propulsion engines.
Nippon Yusen KK, Japan’s largest shipping line, and Nippon Oil Corp are spearheading the effort to build the carrier, which will be used by Toyota Motor. Nippon Yusen will invest about $1.4 million in the solar panel system, which Nippon Oil has agreed to design.
The solar panels will replace nearly 7% of fuel oil needed to operate the engines and will eliminate carbon dioxide emissions roughly 20 ton of carbon emission annually.
Although solar panels have been used on large vessels before, they have never been used to power a vessel’s primary engine.
The ship will be complete by December, but will not be fully commercialized for at least three years.
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