SOLAR SAILING LOOPS

Celebrating my 85th year on planet earth

I’m Anthony Howarth inviting you to support

the first voyage in my adventurous series of

SOLAR SAILING LOOPS

solarsailingloops.org

Exciting and arduous journeys demonstrating

practical Solar Electric Power for transport.

These voyages will also promote my personal passion -

the potential of the WorldWide Solar Electric Grid

Support SSS Teela Brown and her crew

as we SolarMotor canals and rivers

and SolarSail the open waters of our first loop.

The GREAT WEST-EUROPE SCANDINAVIAN LOOP

Agde to Alphen aan Rijn, Åland and the Arctic.

The Arctic to Aalborg, Argyll, the Algarve and back to Agde

A continuous solar powered voyage through

France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden,

Finland, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and back to France.

March 2023 to March 2024

1 Year – About 7500 nautical miles (13,500 Km)

with no fossil fuel back-up

Absolutely no diesel, no gasoline, no gas on-board

STATUS

The Solar Sailing Ship SSS Teela Brown (aka LongBoat )

is complete, in the water, under the winter sun

and raring to go in February to Agde

FUNDING

GoFundMe SOLAR SAILING LOOPS has been set at £62,500

based on anticipated cost plus a contingency allowance

for time-table variations due to weather,

closed waterways, maintenance and the

unexpected … and the GoFundMe fees.

For decades I’ve championed the practical value and suitability of direct Solar Electric Power in transport .

In 1978, I wrote a report on sustainable and practical transport for the World’s “ordinary roads”. I calculated that, even then, solar panels mounted on the roof of a lightweight station wagon or utility vehicle could provide up to 50% of the average energy used by these vehicles on the road.

In practice across latitudes and seasons it seemed more likely that vehicles with a hybrid diesel solar-electric drive could get at least 25% of their energy direct from the sun. A massive environmental improvement.

Right up to today almost all efforts to introduce solar power for transport have fallen foul of the usual culprits. Blatantly, fossil fuel companies have even bought up solar panel manufacturers then closed them down.

More surprising to me, the concept of solar power for transport has been viciously resisted by the electricity generating giants. In the early 2000s I sat in a boardroom in Monaco next to a director of probably the largest electricity generating company in Europe.

Without any civility he turned and said to me, “I detest you, Mr Howarth. I detest you. We have tested your solar vehicles. They work. But, they do not use one Watt of MY electricity. I’ll stop you. When I leave here I am going to meet with people who are interested in your ideas. I will tell them to stop. I can do that...”

He was right. He could. And he did. End of a promising ten year Solar Light Utility Vehicle project!

Now, years later, electric plug-in cars are starting to appear on the roads in significant numbers. But the vehicle industry has followed a route of crude, lazy engineering. Huge batteries. Overweight inefficient vehicles. On average, across the world, appalling amounts of fossil fuel generated electricity.

I still feel that we have to do something

to counter the apathy toward solar power in transport. We can’t give up. In retirement it’s tempting to do just that. So, over the past ten years, I have constructed the 14 meter Solar Sailing Ship Teela Brown – aka LongBoat.

At the age of 85, I’m embarking on yet another adventure. This series of voyages will demonstrate the real value and practicality of solar power in transportation. As we set sail we will develop our website, books, blog and social networking to spread the word about solar power for transport.

Thank you for your support

Tony