On 22 September, 2010, three vessels entered the Inaugural Townsville Solar Boat Race. The race was from Strand Park Beach to Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island and back again.
This website was created by one of the entrants in the race and shows the media releases, some photos of the vessels on the race day, and information about the development of the Smart Barge.
Genesis of the Smart Barge concept:
There were two magazines on my desk covering the topics of Marine Engineering and Renewable Energy.
I read that the world's largest passenger liner had a 90 Megawatt (fuel oil) power plant and that there was a 90 Megawatt solar farm.
The thought came: what if you connected a 90 Megawatt solar farm to a big cruise liner.
Obviously, the solar farm would be much bigger than then the ship, so maybe the ship can tow the solar farm.
I wanted to explore the idea further and as there was a solar powered boat race in the offing, I decided to build a small version of the towed solar array.
What would one call such a machine?
Well, there is a 'dumb barge' which is a barge with no motor, here is a barge which is all solar.
And we are in the age of the Smart Grid, so the machine was named the 'Smart Barge'.
A google search found that others have already used the term but not in the context of a raft that carries solar panels to power another vessel.
The electric kayak towing a Smart Barge holding two 85 watt Astronergy panels.
About the sponsors.
In November, 2009 My Clean Sky, SEA O2's carbon offset service sought sponsorship to carbon offset the Earthrace powerboat in its fight against the Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean. Unfortunately, the deal fell through when the Erthrace vessel was sunk by a Japanese harpoon ship. It was agreed that the sponsorship cash would be transferred to a nother project, the Solar Boat race. Special thanks to Cranbrook Solar for donating the panels.
Race Day photos
