BENGALURU: On a regular sunny day, make your own yacht with solar cells and leave it on a pool of water to see it sail. Bishojeet Paul, an entreprenuer, is hosting a workshop ‘Solar Yacht - Make your own miniature model’ where he will teach you how to design and build your own miniature yacht, powered by solar cells, that runs on water with energy from sun. Also, you can learn the benefits of solar power and how architectural and building engineers integrate solar cells.
35-year-old Bishojeet has won many awards for making miniature models for college exhibitions. He is also a Limca Book of Records (1999) holder for making miniature models. He has also been featured on various TV shows. He says, “At the moment, I work for my dad’s business and during my spare time, I do designing and conduct workshops.”
Though he has been miniature cars, bikes and aero models since his high school days, this will be his first yacht powered by solar cells. He says, “I had some left over solar panels which I bought in bulk from China. I wanted to make use of those panels and thought of making different things.” He tried to make an aeroplane that could fly but as it requires powerful motor and consumes lot of energy, it failed.
He then made a boat last week and make it run in the water. “You can make it run by using micro motor, which is fixed below with propeller. On a normal sunny day, just leave this yacht in the water and it just runs with help of sunlight.” But it does not store this energy as there is no battery.
A propellor is also fixed which rotates when the power is ON. “The yacht is made from foam sheet and covered with acrylic sheet to give a smooth finish.”
He says he can make one within an hour but he has planned the workshop for three hours as he would also be holding talks on solar energy and its uses. “I pre-plan everything at home. I will make sure all participants will complete the model within that time span. I prepare most of the kit at home so that they could assemble the parts step by step.” Anyone above the age of 10 years can participate. All raw materials will be provided at the session.
But the yatch is very durable, he says adding “Life span of solar cell is infinite. No battery is required to run the motor as it is powered by 3 volt solar cell. It will last for very long, as long as you preserve the yacht.”
Raw Materials used to make solar yacht
l Foam sheet for the main chassis (body of the yacht)
l Acrylic sheet to cover the foam sheet and make the yacht look realistic
l Micro Motor for the engine
l Acrylic propeller connected to the motor
l 3 volts solar cell
l Hot glue gun