India’s First Solar Boat Successfully Completes 150 Days Of Voyage:- India’s first solar ferry boat “Aditya” deployed in the Vaikom-Tavanakadavu section by the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) in Alapuzzha district, Kerala has successfully completed 150 days of voyage.
The ferry boat proved the sceptics wrong, who doubted its ability, that it would operate on a large scale under cloudy and rainy conditions.
Traffic Superintendent (Ernakulam region) M. Sujith said “the normal service of 22 trips with grid charging is being done during break in the rainy days, when very limited energy from the sun was available too. The boat which was inaugurated on January 12, has completed 150 days of voyage as on June 12, conducting a total of 3,058 trips with around 2.3 lakh passengers traveling in it.”
The actual daily cost of operation was as low as Rs 163 as against the average daily fuel expense of Rs 6,500 and maintenance cost of Rs 500 for a fuel operated boat.
NavAlt Solar and Electrical Boats Limited Founder Sandith Thandassery said “the critics argued that the battery on a cloudy day will drain in two hours. Since the heavy rains started it has been two weeks. However, the service was not affected, even though the contribution from sun was very low, even as low as 10.5 kWh (against kWh on sunny days).
The solar boat, by far resulted in saving 14,200 litres of diesel and help in saving 38 tonnes of carbon-dioxide emission. Furthermore, the Union Ministry of Renewable Energy is considering a request of the State Government to extend fund for 10 more solar ferries. Over the coming years, the SWTD too is planning to replace the existing fleet by solar ferries in a phased manner.
SUPRAJA
