Eco-catamaran gets its power from renewable energy

The Eco Slim catamaran is lighter and suffers less drag than traditional boats, and can therefore achieve the same performance using less powerful engines.

With a seating capacity of 150, a length of 24m and a width of 10.5m, the boat is intended mainly for tourism and can cruise at eight knots. While there are similar boats powered by electricity, they are intended for inland waterways and do not have the same seating capacity.

A team from the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering and the Barcelona School of Nautical Studies at UPC-Barcelona Tech participated in the development of the catamaran.

Jordi Llorca from the Institute of Energy Technology (INTE), and Prof Ricard Bosch and Prof Víctor Fuses of the Department of Electrical Engineering, designed the propulsion system of the craft with the assistance of PhD student Oriol Gallemís.

The system itself uses two electric motors connected to multiple energy sources — a diesel generator and a set of 90 lead batteries. The batteries can be charged either by connecting to the generator or the two wind turbines and 40 solar panels installed on the deck of the boat.