PROJECT DETAILS

Title of the Project: Electric conversion and solar integration of an existing diesel catamaran for Emission-Free Tourism

Brief Description
 

The project, implemented by Partha Dubey and the Dubey Eco Sports Boat Pvt, aims to convert a small catamaran to become India’s first solar-powered boat (or ship).  Dubey’s solar-powered catamaran will not be the world’s first solar-powered boat, far from it, but the project does include a number of novel and promising mini-innovations.

One of its core innovations is the idea that many kinds of small one-hulled boats could be transformed to more stable, more sea-worthy and safer catamarans by adding a very simple and affordable second hull as a stabilizer – and by covering the space between the hulls with solar panels. Small boats would otherwise be too small to be converted to solar propulsion: there is not enough space in them for a sufficient number of photovoltaic panels.

Dubey wants to organize a high-profile pilot project which would attract the attention of media and social media in India and produce large-scale reflections in the fields of both tourism and fishing. There are, at the moment, in West Bengal alone, around 11 000 fishing boats and 400 tourism boats running by diesel engines.

According to the current global estimates there are approximately 4.6 million small fishing vessels and 33 million recreational boats in the world.

The use of diesel causes global warming carbon dioxide emissions. India’s fishing boats currently produce, on average, 3.6 million tons of carbon dioxide per vessel per year. The conversion of one boat the size of Partha Dubey’s catamaran, so that it can run on solar panels (and batteries loaded by them) would save about 5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, every year. According to Dubey’s calculation his solar catamaran could still travel on average 12,5 kilometers with the battery after the sun has set.

The use of diesel reduces the net income of fishermen and tourist companies. In India buying diesel amounts, on average, to 75 per cent of the costs of the country’s fishermen. In West Bengal and especially in the Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest - the noise of all the diesel engines also constitutes a major problem to many endangered marine animals, including the seriously endangered Ganga river dolphins. 

Eco-tourism has played an important role in saving Sundarbans and larger volume of eco-tourism would strenghten its positive, protective impact. Ganga river dolphins – resembling the ichtyosaurs that inhabited the seas during the time of the great dinosaurs more than most other dolphin species - are one of the greatest draws of ecotourism in the area.  Therefore Partha Dubey’s pilot project might also make a significant indirect contribution to saving the vast carbon stores of the Sundarbans mangrove swamps (estimated to amount to roughly one billion tons of carbon).

Project budget: 4894 euros

Name of the Principal Investigator: Mr. Partha Dubey

Name of the Co-Principal Investigator:  NA

Project Achievements & Outcomes: