Solar powered ferry boat for the rural area of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a riverine country. Ferry boats are the major means of communication in the rural area. Diesel is used as the fuel in the engine boats used for transporting people from one side of a river bank to the other. To avoid environmental pollution solar powered boat is proposed. A conventional ferry boat is converted into solar powered ferry boat. A complete design process is described in this paper. Following the design process, the boat has been retrofitted with 48V, 500W BLDC motor, 1kW Solar panel with 9600 VAh Battery. The boat is 6.5 meter long and 2 meter beam, capable of carrying 1200kg load for 8 hours. The approximate speed of the boat is measured as 3knots, which is capable of covering 60 km distance in one full charge.