It floats, but will solar “Loon” fly?
I’ve got a Clean Break column in today’s Toronto Star about a local “technoenvironmentalist” who has designed a solar-electric pontoon boat from scratch and hopes to sell it commercially by next spring’s boating season in Ontario. I’ve taken a ride on “The Loon” and she’s a smooth, steady ride. Not very fast, but when all you want to do is bop about on a quiet lake, you can’t beat the cheap source of power — a combination of grid and sun.
Considering oil just surged past $70 a barrel — translating to more than $1.25 per litre of gas at marina pumps — and considering many lakes in Ontario and other jurisdictions now forbid gas-powered boats, the Loon may appeal to many.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
September 9th, 2005 at 8:57 am
kudos to the inventor… but they look like these:
http://www.duffyboats.com/ ..just with silicon on top!