Affordable Solar & Wind

solar/steam engine?

How well do you think it would work to make a steam engine for a small boat that is heated by the sun. Also if so do you think i could make it from California to Australia.

1) Difficult .. to boil water you need to concentrate the sun's energy with some sort of solar reflector .. this could be done using eg. a curved surface, however it would have to be constantly adjusted to point at the sun .. difficult on a small moving boat ..

2) Unlikely .. it would take more than available sunshine (daylight) hours .. and you would have problems if the weather changed and it got cloudy ..

Rather than relying only on direct heating, you could go for eg. a combination ... the top surface of the boat could be coated with of Solar Cells (to boil water pre-heated by the reflector system).. and the addition of sails will allow you to navigate at night ...

Solar sailor: a hybrid ferry with solar wings

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