Partnership | TU Delft Solar Boat Team
"The 16 biggest ships in the world produce the same amount of emissions as all 850 million cars driving across the globe.”
About the TU Delft Solar Boat Team
What is the TU Delft Solar Boat Team?
The TU Delft Solar Boat Team is one of the Dream Teams housed in the D:Dream Hall at the TU Delft campus. The name of this building is an acronym that stands for ‘Delft: Dream Realization of Extremely Advanced Machines’. In the D:Dream Hall, a number of student teams work on their own innovative projects. The TU Delft Solar Boat Team consists of 26 ambitious students who are part of 10 different faculties. In the span of a single year, the team will design, manufacture, and ultimately race in their own solar boat.
This project offers students the opportunity to gain valuable practical experience and learn what it’s like to work in a multidisciplinary team to achieve an ambitious goal. Throughout the year, they develop in many different areas and adopt skills that they will benefit from throughout their professional career.
What they are doing it for
With this project, the students want to work together with the maritime industry to issue in the next era in shipping: sustainable maritime transport.
There are a lot of sustainability gains to be had in this field, and by collaborating with the maritime sector and innovating in sustainable ways, the students are contributing to a better, greener future.
The first challenge
Becoming world champion in the Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge Offshore Class
Monaco, July 2019
This year, the team will be competing in the world’s biggest international competition (making it the world championships) for solar boats: the Solar & Energy Boat Challenge in Monaco. Their boat will be competing in the offshore class, meaning that the students will have to take into account unprecedented situations such as high waves and wind.
The competition consists of two different legs. On the first day, the boats will travel from Monaco to Ventimiglia (IT) and back, a distance spanning around 30 kilometres. The second leg spans 93 kilometres, from Monaco to Cannes (FR) and back.
To win, the team will have to score the fastest time for both the Monaco-Ventimiglia leg and the Monaco-Cannes leg. This will be a considerable challenge, as they will be competing with other student teams, corporate teams, and private teams. Some of these teams have created super-fast speed boats, but the Dream Team believes that with their clever technologies, they can be even faster by using the available energy even more efficiently.
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The second challenge
Setting the world record for crossing the Channel from Calais to Dover powered solely by solar power
The Channel, August 2019
In July 2019, the team will be writing history. The TU Delft Solar Boat Team will be attempting to beat the world record for fastest solar-powered boat to cross the Channel.
In the final week of July, they will traverse this narrow strait between Calais and Dover in the shortest time possible. Their aim is to show the world that this busy shipping corridor can be crossed using only solar panels.
