A quite unique catamaran boat anchored in Port Adriano (Calvià) yesterday, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s biggest solar panelled boat. Tûranor means Power of the Sun in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology.
The vessel has recently completed a 50,000 kilometers ocean crossing around the world from Monaco to Monaco in 587 days. The extraordinary journey, the first and only one of a water-logged solar vehicle to have achieved a circumnavigation, started on September 27th, 2010, and concluded on May 6th, 2012. It had all started with a vision inspired by Jules Verne’s novels: Travelling around the world aboard a ship which is being propelled by solar energy only, an ecological and technological journey that looked feasible in 2004 when the vision was first voiced, but that no one had ever tried. The boat is now on its way home, doing a tour of some parts of the Mediterranean promoting the potential of renewable energies on board and elsewhere.
The clean and quiet vessel was launched in March 2010 in Kiel, Germany, in the shipyards of Knierim Yachtbau after 14 months of construction, following a design by Craig Loomes from New Zealand. Tûranor PlanetSolar is the biggest solar ship in the world with 537 square metres of photovoltaic panels powering the ship’s 6 blocks of lithium-ion battery. Quite a sight.
The Tûranor PlanetSolar will remain in Port Adriano until July 7th.
The photo was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.com and the photographer, Miquel Garau.
Muchas gracias.
The Mallorca Photo Blog 
It looks like a spaceship. I’m all for solar power, almost an activist. If only solar panels were mass produced to make them affordable. We need to stop polluting the earth. Great job. Hats off to the captain and crew!