PlanetSolar goes live

PlanetSolar, the project to complete the first-ever circumnavigation powered exclusively by solar energy, has gone live with the arrival of its first lead partner. Construction of the boat can now begin this year, and the voyage itself is scheduled for 2010.

Yverdon-les-Bains, 19 March 2008 – After two years of development, the PlanetSolar project has reached a decisive stage following the signature of a partnership agreement with a company whose identity will be revealed this spring. The new agreement underwrites the construction of the PlanetSolar boat, enabling the project to go live.

The aim of PlanetSolar is to complete the first-ever circumnavigation powered exclusively by solar energy. Wherever she stops en route, the travelling PlanetSolar village will be there to promote the use of solar power and sustainable development.

“We are extremely happy, because this first partnership marks the culmination of several years of hard work”, says Raphaël Domjan, the originator of the PlanetSolar project, and future co-skipper of the boat with French sailor Gérard d’Aboville. “For the last two years, a full team has been working quietly, but intensively, on the project. Today, we are proud to announce that PlanetSolar has made the transition from project to reality”.

PlanetSolar Project Manager Joël Sunier explains: “The foundations are in place, and we’ve been discussing and considering the many scientific and logistical aspects, including publicity and the travelling village. Preliminary work has been completed in both these areas, and we’re now ready to put that work into action”.

PlanetSolar is an international project, whose team includes physicists, engineers, boat builders and a number of environmental protection specialists. The PlanetSolar boat is a revolutionary multihull carrying 180 m2 of photovoltaic solar panels.

A number of companies have already shown support for PlanetSolar, and are working with the project as its Official Suppliers. Autodesk will be supplying the CAD software, the MGI Group in Lausanne will look after administration, Horus Networks SARL will supply a range of internet services and host the PlanetSolar web site, whilst Moser Design in Lausanne will design the project’s corporate identity and visual communication material.

The first-ever solar-powered circumnavigation of the globe will set many new records and worldwide firsts: the first solar-powered round-the-world journey by any means of transport, the first solar-powered crossing of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the first circumnavigation by a solar-powered boat and the record for crossing the Atlantic.