Green Express
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Green Express

Finally, a hybrid with good speed.

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Sauter Carbon Offset Design and shipyard Atlantic Motor Yachts recently presented a design project to the public Atlantic Sea Hawk.an 18-meter hybrid boat capable of speeds up to 50 knots.

At last, the concept of "hybrid" will be associated not only with the humble puffy puffs, scrubbing on the waves at the speed of a happy hippie. Ecology and conscious attitude to nature is good, but this image is still not that much attracted to hybrid boats the most dynamic and active part of the yachting community.

According to concept designer Richard Soter, "With the advanced technology of the Solar Hybrid we have been able to achieve a 50 to 100 percent reduction in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The combination of Sunpower's solar cell battery and Allison's hybrid propulsion system is now the most environmentally friendly marine propulsion system in the world.

Although Atlantic Sea Hawk exists only in sketches, the engineering thought behind it is very serious. The hybrid unit around which it is designed was developed by Allison Transmission (transmission division of General Motors) under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Solar energy charges the battery of Allison's nickel metal batteries, which then power the yacht's on-board systems and propulsion system with three 300 kW each, allowing speeds of up to 50 knots. The same batteries allow the boat to sail in harbours and inland waterways with no exhaust emissions at all.

A unique feature of a yacht is its ability to give energy to the common network instead of being powered by it when connected to the shore network. The Atlantic Sea Hawk power plant can supply up to 11 megawatts per hour (!) of clean energy to the grid, removing all guilt from the owner for the fuel burned in previous ruthless annealings at maximum speed.

The propulsion system of the yacht is three Rolls-Royce Kamewa water jets, which also help the boat to consume less fuel than traditional propellers. These propulsion systems are already used in high-speed ferries around the world to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

It is also gratifying that for all its environmental friendliness Atlantic Sea Hawk, judging by the sketches, should also have a spacious and stylish interior and even carry in the depths of the Kevlar-Carbon body quite a large tender. If the developers do not put the electric motor on it as well, we will see a unique situation when the auxiliary boat produces more emissions into the atmosphere than its large and fast "floating base".

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