An age of greener, more efficient shipping may be in the offing as a specially modified 43,000-tonne bulk freighter completes a six-month sea trial using a combination of diesel engines and a set of high-tech automatic sails to catch the wind.
Next they should replace the diesel engines with bigass electric motors, and put solar panels over every top surface of the vessel that they can, and even possibly on the sail-wings too. Wind and solar powered shipping would be a good combo since there are plenty of both out on the seas. Charge the boat batteries at port as needed, cruise while collecting solar power etc
I’m sure they could put temporary solar panels on the containers. It would be more work but would it save enough on fuel to make it worth it? Who knows.
Next they should replace the diesel engines with bigass electric motors, and put solar panels over every top surface of the vessel that they can, and even possibly on the sail-wings too. Wind and solar powered shipping would be a good combo since there are plenty of both out on the seas. Charge the boat batteries at port as needed, cruise while collecting solar power etc
Great idea but a cargo ship has like 2% top surface showing, the rest is containers of future landfill :(
I’m sure they could put temporary solar panels on the containers. It would be more work but would it save enough on fuel to make it worth it? Who knows.
Even without doing the math, I feel pretty confident saying that the answer is “no.”