Official ceremony for the PlanetSolar Relay for Hope – Australian young people launch project in Brisbane Australia – Largest solar boat in the world crosses the Pacific – antipodal line and equator crossed: important criteria for circumnavigating the world With their visit to the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar, today, Monday, 175 young people aged between 6 and 25 are launching the «PlanetSolar Relay For Hope», a relay from one landing stage to the next, in which resident young people present their visions and hopes for a solar energy driven world through essays, videos, music, drawing and models. The PlanetSolar Project round-the-world expedition aims to sensitise future decision-makers to the use of sustained energy sources and seeks direct contact to schools, families and students. Discussions with the crew and visits to the ship allow the young people to experience the unusual adventure of the biggest solar boat in the world at first hand and to directly participate in the project with their visions of a solar world.
Planet Solar in Brisbane
In an official ceremony students from Brisbane schools will join the captain and crew to hand out their banners. The Solar Relay for Hope will continue on from Brisbane around the world, with the TÛRANOR’s global expedition providing the chance for collecting children’s thoughts on solar at each stopover as a symbolic act to capture the vision of the next generation. Young people all over the world can join the project via internet.
Brisbane has been selected to officially launch the Solar Relay for Hope because of the massive natural disasters at the beginning of 2011. On the conclusion of the voyage, all works that were created and provided to the Solar Relay for Hope will be given to politicians and representatives from the United Nations to signify the children of the world’s vision for a solar planet.
“With our expedition around the world, we want to demonstrate that the change for renewable energies is already taking place,” Cordula Ströher, initiator of the PlanetSolar Relay for Hope, explains. “We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and passion the youth of Brisbane has displayed in sharing our vision for a solar world.”
“It is initiatives like the PlanetSolar Relay for Hope that ensure the next generation grow up environmentally conscious and understand the importance of striving for a solar world”, says Raphaël Domjan, project founder of PlanetSolar.
Despite the most challenging of weather conditions up to now, the MS TÛRANOR PlanetSolar continues on its round-the-world expedition and, with Brisbane, has now reached the Austrian continent.
The last part of the Pacific crossing was marked by high sea swell, squalls and extremely difficult conditions, which the biggest boat in the world passed with flying colours, however.
The TÛRANOR PlanetSolar has made its goal the circumnavigation of the world while meeting the most stringent criteria – the so-called English conditions. To this end, the following criteria need to be met: starting point and destination of the expedition are identical, all lines of longitude will be crossed, the equator will be crossed twice and the antipodal line will be negotiated. The antipodal line circumscribes the exact point on the opposite half of the earth and is determined by continuing the line starting at the starting point through the geocentre to the other side of the globe. On its journey from New Caledonia to Australia the MS TÛRANOR has already twice met the required criteria, by passing the antipodal point
and crossing the equator.
In addition, the solar boat has already achieved two records: the fastest Atlantic crossing in a solar boat and the longest stretch ever travelled in a solar-driven vehicle.
On 27 September 2010, the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar set out from Monaca to circumnavigate the world using the power of the sun alone. The mission of the biggest solar boat in the world, which also sails under the Swiss flag, is to show that technologies in the renewable energy sector are already very reliable today and can be used very effectively for solar mobility at sea. The PlanetSolar Project was founded by the Swiss Raphaël Domjan and is based in Yverdon-les-Bains (Canton of Waadt). Today, it has already rendered technological progress possible, in the manufacture of composite materials and the storage of solar energy, for instance.
Planet Solar Brisbane Australia
PlanetSolar falls back on technical data from Metéo France for circumnavigating the world. In addition, a special routing technology has been developed for the project. For its 31-metre length and 15-metre width, the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar has a 537m2 solar generator. The latter uses photovoltaic cells manufactured the Californian company SunPower, which – in contrast to conventional photovoltaic cells – are approx. 50 percent more efficient. Within the scope of sponsoring agreements, the Swiss watch company Candino as well as the energy management company Immosolar are the main partners of PlanetSolar. The project is also supported by many other companies and institutions.
