The Azura Marine company in Bali has the project to cruise around Bali in an 8 meters, solar-power-only, boat named “Surya Namaskar” (Salutation to the sun). Actually, an Indonesian canoe, a Junkung, is being adapted to receive a big solar roof (25 m²) which will provide plenty of sun protection for its (up to) 8 passengers, but also the “fuel” to power the 10 kw electrical motor.

Mission “Bali salutes the sun”

The name of the whole mission is “Surya Namaskar Bali”, which means “Bali salutes the sun”. It will consist in a trip around the island of Bali, navigating in the sun Junkung during the day, and resting on Bali’s shores during the night. These pauses will be the occasion for the crew members to demonstrate the simple and reliable technology and promote this new way of ferrying the millions of tourists that visit Bali each year.

Reducing the ecosystem impact

This whole project was designed by the Azura Marine team to take advantage of new technologies to fight the pollution due to massive touristic boat transports powered by fossil fuels. The leaks and the sound pollution have been proven to put a lot of stress on marine life and coastal ecosystems like mangroves. The growing traffic has also impacted the quietness of some places, thus reducing their touristic interest because of the noise. All these reasons pushed the team to figure out the best way to shape the future of coast tourism in Bali into a more sustainable and eco-friendly activity.

Thinking global, acting local!

We love such initiatives that demonstrate the economical and ecological advantages of this new-era coastal ferrying. We hope that their experience, expected to begin in September 2017 and last at least a week, will be a total success and an inspiration for all the transportation companies around our Ocean, which is quite a sunny place most of the year, especially in its Southern parts…

Via : eco-business.com & Azura Marine