Planet Mechanics on Planet Green channel.

[utchuckd]

Came across this the other day and it looked interesting. It's basically a couple of guys who do different green, self sufficiency type projects. A lot of it may be old news to live aboards and cruisers, but being new to everything myself it looked like there were some crossover appeals to boaters. One project they did was make a solar powered water taxi in Venice. It was a prototype, so all the aesthetics would have to be worked out, but they basically had a big canopy made of 6 solar cells, on a tilting rod (like a barbecue spit) so they could face it toward the sun as much as possible. They got enough power out of it to run in the open water. They were definitely getting some looks as they were motoring along with no sound. Even had a collision coming around a corner as the gondolas will listen for the sound of a power boat to know if there's something around the corner. They couldn't hear the electric boat so they both came around the corner at the same time. Oops. Interesting show.