The renewable-energy powered former racing catamaran, the Energy Observer, is run entirely on solar, wind and hydrogen power. It’s on a six-year, round-the-world journey that will take it to more than 50 countries, to show the world that hydrogen is an effective renewable fuel.
Victorien Erussard, an offshore racer, and Jérôme Delafosse, an explorer, partnered with French research centre CEA-LITEN to develop the technology.
The problem is that 95 per cent of the hydrogen that you use already is made out of fossil energies. We will produce hydrogen onboard from the ocean, we will clean and purify the water and then we will electrolyse it and then compress it in tank storage.
—Jérôme Delafosse
The €4 million (US $4.9 million)-per-year journey is estimated to take so long because of the 101 stops along the way to prove to the world the potential of renewable energy. Track the Energy Observer’s journey real time HERE.
Written By: Adriane Rysz
1 comment
When Magellan sailed around the World, FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, what did his ship run on? Because I could have sworn THAT was the first “zero emissions” ship to circumnavigate the Earth.