Solar power is quickly becoming a suitable renewable source of energy which many people are adopting. Lots of homes and businesses all over the country already have solar panels. Some use solar power to heat their homes while some use it for small items such as garage tools and routers. Many people think that solar power is a very new invention, however actually it has been around for over 100 years! It's amazing that it's taken so long to catch on.

It was developed by a Russian scientist way back in 1838, he used this to create a solar powered boat. Solar engines were developed further, however with the advent of the internal combustion engine people were less impressed with a solar boat. A boat could get more power from fossil fuel, rather than solar power.

Solar powered boats didn't really do much until about the 1980's when it gained much more attention. In the 80's solar power was normally only used for competition and races rather than creating something everyone could benefit from. There wasn't much research going into creating a large solar powered boat capable of carrying lots of people.

Total Power Versus Partial Power

Few people would be looking at powering their whole boat on nothing more than solar power, for a start this would make it difficult to use at night. Many boats are starting to use solar panels to provide power to domestic appliances such as the oven, refrigerator and lighting. Many boating stores sell kits to add partial solar power to your boat relatively easily. Most of these kits contain everything that you could possibly need, including solar panels, wires and any additional equipment.

There are a few people that are looking for ways to power their whole boat by solar power rather than having to use a diesel engine. The arguments for such a technology are that it's completely environmentally friendly because there is no pollution caused by using solar panels. Solar powered boats are also very quiet, almost silent whereas diesel boats can be extremely noisy. This can create a lot of unwanted noise pollution.

Existing Boats with Solar Power

You can actually buy some commercial and personal boats that do run off solar power. However these types of boat are not really suitable for long ocean going travel. These are only suitable for fairly small trips, mainly in rivers, lakes and canals. Solar powered boats are generally not strong enough to use on the sea, at the moment a sail boat is more powerful than a solar boat. This is the main reason why solar powered boats are not normally used on the sea for long crossings, they are only suitable for small trips.

This doesn't mean to say that solar powered boats won't become more powerful in the near future. Technology is improving every single day. In perhaps 20 years we could have viable ocean going solar powered boats which at least get some of their power from solar panels.

Solar boats for personal use could soon become suitable for rivers and bay excursions. These boats will almost certainly cost more than diesel boats, however within a few years it should pay for itself with no fuel costs, and little maintenance costs.