Man who built solar-powered yacht that can run forever tests its 30 kWh battery upgrade and shares the difference the sun makes for 6-hour cruise

This guy built a solar-powered yacht that can theoretically run under its own steam (figure of speech) almost for free, and theoretically forever.

It already sounds great, but it’ll sound even better with the new upgraded battery, because the improvement is so dramatic it’s unbelievable.

It’s definitely not what you’d call a small upgrade.

And he’s apparently only getting started.

The new battery is almost twice as efficient as the old one

So far, the Helios 11 – this is the name of the prototype – had been running using 6,000W of power output but only 1,000W of solar input.

That’s a ‘net drain’ of 5,000W, which is not terrible, but not great either.

More to the point, it was enough for 45 nautical miles or six hours of range at around 7.5 knots.

Now, the team replaced the battery with a new 30kWh unit, which increased the input, and that made a huge difference.

More accurately, the battery is now capable of retaining more power harnessed from the sun.

With the same 6,000W of power but 3,500W of solar input, the boat can still guarantee the same range as before – six hours or 45 miles – but using only 50 percent of the battery charge.

That’s a huge improvement.

That’s like upgrading a Tesla that does 400 miles on a charge with a new battery that guarantees 800 miles on a charge.

The idea behind the solar-powered yacht

True North Yachts has created a solar-powered yacht prototype that can run using nothing but solar power.

Solar power is always tricky, mainly because an unexpected rain shower or a cloudy day can completely disrupt your trip unless you’ve got a backup generator or powertrain, or at least a sail.

It’s still great that they’re working on it, and they’re clearly making progress.

And apparently they’re only getting started.

At the moment, they’re focusing on building ultra-lightweight boats with more battery capacity and battery stability.

But, at the same time, they’re also working on a trimaran conversion to make it even more stable and increase its solar-carrying capacity and therefore its range.

The ultimate goal is to develop ‘unsinkable’ yachts that combine sustainability with high speed and long range, because both things are a problem at the moment.