We’ve not heard from green yacht designer Richard Sauter for quite a while. It turns out that he’s been busy on the drawing board. And now he has announced his newest baby: a “Revolutionary Plug-in, Super Fast, Super Green, Solar Hybrid Vessel” said to be capable of generating enough surplus electricity to cruise carbon-neutral for 7,000 nautical miles every year.
Together with Mr Sauter’s earlier Formula Zero concept, the Super Nova has the distinction of being the only superyacht to harness sustainable sources of energy from wingsails, PV cells and power sailing KER. These, combined with plug-in power sources, charge a lithium-ion storage system that runs all hotel services and enables Super Nova to reach her highest speeds and navigate harbors and inland waterways with zero emissions.
Super Nova 60 particulars
Length: 60m
Beam: 18m
Draft: 1m
Guests: 14
Crew: 16+
Weight: 125tons
Sail area: 1,200+sq.m
Cruising speed: 18knots
Maximum speed: 22+ knots
Mercedes Benz & Daimler BleuTec Gensets: diesel/electric
Power: 1,600kw
Fuel: diesel/battery
Zero carbon motoring range: 50nm
Power sailing cruising range at 12 knots: 4,000+nm
Consumption: 125lph
CO2 per day: 9tons
CO2 reduction: 29tons per day
Zero Carbon power sailing range at 8knots average: unlimited
Carbon Neutral power sailing range at 16knots average: 7,000+nm
Mr Sauter has no doubts the Super Nova’s wave-piercing hulls and hydro/aerodynamic advances will make her easily the world’s fastest megayacht. Cruising at 18 knots, the vessel can achieve a 75 to 100% reduction in GHG emissions by employing multiple BlueTec diesel electric drives supported by fully rotational wingsails, power sailing & wave motion regeneration, a 650 square meter solar cell array and UPS backup.
But it is the Super Nova’s environmental impact – or the absence of it – that has Mr Sauter hyperventilating. The megayacht is projected to save more than 6,000 tons of CO2 per year. Plugged in to shore power, she is capable of feeding 400+MWh of electricity to the grid – enough energy to make 7,000 nautical miles of carbon-neutral voyages annually. Enough reason, we believe, for shipyards interested in building environmentally friendly yachts to start talking to Mr Sauter. ~Barista Uno.
