As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 18th of October, 2020, the Croatian shipbuilding company Agena Marin from Biograd, known for its semi-submarines with glazed bottoms and small taxi catamarans, which sail the Croatian and international seas, will present its new innovative creation next week at the Biograd Boat Show. It is a new ecological, commercial vessel in retro design.
”The Solar Ferry is an extremely economical boat, without fuel and service costs, and its purpose is to transport passengers on shorter routes and panoramic rides, romantic tours or campaign cruising along the shores of the sea or lakes, which enriches the tourist offer. It’s a completely ecological and economically acceptable commercial vessel called Solar Ferry, which is powered by solar power and electricity,” explained Mladen Peharda, the owner of Agena Marin.
The new ship built by Agena Marina is eight and a half metres long and has a capacity of up to 12 passengers, and its purpose is to transport passengers on shorter distances and panoramic rides.
“The boat has a line of steamships from the 1920s and I see it as an ideal tourist vessel for so-called ”champagne cruising” or some romantic tours along the coast or lakes. Something like a tourist carriage ride through the city. However, this shape of the ship was taken for another reason, and it’s related to its economy. Namely, in the past, hulls were designed to be as efficient as possible, because at that time there were simply no engines of unlimited horsepower. We took it on because we wanted a low-resistance hull, which would be well-suited to solar and electric propulsion,” Peharda explains.
Apart from the retro hull and solar panels, economic viability was achieved through the construction of the ship itself, since it was built in a vacuum infusion of extremely light, “sandwich” material. In addition to the reduced weight, this segment also introduces an additional environmental component, as the material is mostly based on recycled PET packaging. On top of that, great savings throughout the project were achieved through the use of ordinary AGM batteries, instead of the otherwise much more expensive lithium ones. The batteries are very easy to charge, because the power of solar panels on a hardtop is 1,500-2,000 W. The estimated travel speed is 5.5 knots and the battery capacity of the solar roof allows sailing time of five to eight hours, depending on the speed and load of the ship.
That’s why Agena Marin’s innovative Solar Ferry has no fuel and service costs, and it’s completely affordable. The manufacturer has prepared a discount for the first three customers to board Solar Ferry at the aforementioned boat show, and the price of a standard equipped boat will be around 300,000 kuna, which is two to three times cheaper than can be found abroad in this category and size of boat.
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