HAYDEN, ID-- A retired engineer says he was looking for a boat to cruise in, without all the noise of a motor so the 70-year-old built his own solar powered boat.
The man calls his solar boat “Sundancer” and he let KREM 2 News come along for a ride on Hayden Lake.
The solar panels on top of the boat generate enough electricity to charge up a battery bank resting inside the boat. The battery bank charges up two motors.
Richard Trudell says his solar powered boat is definitely for cruising. The boat is operated by a joystick or it can be run by remote.
Trudell started working on the solar powered boat in 2009. He’s put about $20,000 into it. He took it for its first test run at the beginning of June. He says if the sun goes behind the clouds for a while, the boat uses stored energy from the batteries.
Now Trudell is talking to Metalite, a boat manufacturer out of Spokane to see if they can get the solar powered boat on the market.
