Floating bridge solar panels to power boat

Electric craft to be used by maintenance personnel

Dubai: Solar panels will be erected soon near Dubai Creek's floating bridge to charge the battery of a small boat used by maintenance engineers.

In the future they could be charging bigger passenger boats, and perhaps even cars. The battery-powered boat is currently being tried out by Waagner Biro Gulf, a German-engineering firm that has devised a system to clean dust off solar panels with treated sewage water to make them more efficient.

Currently, a portacabin office sits on the floating bridge with toilets for technicians. The sewage created is passed through a roof-top garden on the cabin made of reeds which fully processes human waste.

What remains is treated waste water that is clean enough for irrigation use, or to wash away dust from photovoltaic panels.

Higher efficiency

Increasing the efficiency of solar panels could lead to their application in more projects, said Peter Neuschaefer, Director Middle East for the Water, Energy and Environment Technologies of Waagner Biro Gulf.

To do this he devised the Terrasave Panel, which uses treated water to remain cool and clean the panel frequently. Solar panels are affected by high temperatures and dust but by washing them every few minutes and simultaneously cooling them down, efficiency is almost tripled.

Commonly, during an eight-hour sunny day, a dry and dirty panel produces a maximum of 70Wp (Watt-peak output). According to research conducted by Neuschaefer, a clean panel can give a maximum of 150Wp and a Terrasave panel is capable of producing 200Wp. "This is a pilot test boat that is used to manage the coastline and the floating bridge.

By integrating the solar panels to the waste management issue, we can charge the boat," said Neuschaefer. "Or maybe cars, in the future," he added.

An array of five photovoltaic panels will be put up and ready for use in two weeks, said Neuschaefer. However, for the boat to run for three hours, it needs to charge for six hours. For now this is sufficient for the boat's needs.

Waagner Biro Gulf is conducting trials to cool the solar panels with untreated creek water and filtered creek water as well as water recovered from the reed sewage filtration process.