Solar Sal Project
Our Projects.
Building Boats, Building Community
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Schodack Central School has invited the Solar Sal Project to build the first 39.5 foot boat in their bus garage. The boat building project will be integrated into learning experiences for the students and staff that touches many fields of learning. History of the Erie Canal, geology, water studies, boat building and design, language arts to tell the story, science, math, marketing and economics, technology, and more!!!! The Solar Sal Project will provide real life, hands on experiences for the Schodack Community.
Thank you for this opportunity!!!!
The Solar Sal Project
The purpose of the Solar Sal Project is to make practical solar electric transportation. Solar Sal can carry 12 tons of cargo or about three dozen tourists or be a quiet efficient cabin cruiser. Solar cars, trains and planes are not practical , but solar boats can be. Solar Sal is also quiet, non-smelly, and carbon free, her tank is always full and it is always free.
When our country was young, the Erie Canal made our area and the Hudson River important for local transportation and for opening the Great Lakes and the West to commerce for our growing country. The water-power and water transportation in this area led to the rapid development of our industrial economy.
Boats are part of all historical cultures. Dugout canoes, rafts, and lumber made boats are human crafts that use the original composite material, wood. Most of our houses are made of this strong renewable material. Boat building is skill most interested people can learn and practice.
Fossil fuels eventually eclipsed water-power, but concern over Climate Change is bringing solar energy back to the forefront. I say back because the mules that pulled the packet boats on the Erie Canal, like us, are powered by the solar energy in the food they and we eat. Wooden boatbuilding returns boats to a human scale.
Building Solar Sal will require multiple types of woods, various tools, adhesives, coatings, solar photovoltaic panels, electric controls, motors, displays and lots of volunteer labor skills. Operating the boat will require navigational skills, knowing the local waters, and knowing the ropes both literally and figuratively.
Successful operation of the 40 foot Solar Sal will lead to larger solar electric cargo ships making more cargoes practical for solar electric marine transportation. A couple of hundred years ago solar powered, wind, clipper ships had the largest cargo capacity and were the fastest way to transport people and goods around the world. Solar Sal is a leader in the return to solar powered transport.
Schodack School’s K-12 students can relate their current lives, futures, and educational opportunities to the broad areas of energy, environment, and economy manifest in the Solar Sal Project. The monetary economy is a sub-set of the solar energy environmental economy we live in. We, as with all animals and plants throughout time, are dependent on the flow of solar energy. Using that flow to efficiently move people and products can provide a sustainable future for all of us.