Reworking boating, with solar energy
by Elizabeth Durant for MIT Information
Cambridge MA (SPX) Aug 26, 2025
The MIT Crusing Pavilion hosted an altogether totally different marine vessel just lately: a prototype of a photo voltaic electrical boat developed by James Worden ’89, the founding father of the MIT Photo voltaic Electrical Car Workforce (SEVT). Worden visited the pavilion on a scorching, sunny day in late July to supply college students from the SEVT, the MIT Edgerton Heart, MIT Sea Grant, and the broader group an inside have a look at the Anita, named for his late spouse.
Worden’s fascination with solar energy started at age 10, when he picked up a photo voltaic chip at a “hippy-like” convention in his hometown of Arlington, Massachusetts. “My eyes simply lit up,” he says. He constructed his first photo voltaic electrical automobile in highschool, long-established out of cardboard and wooden (taking first place on the 1984 Massachusetts Science Honest), and continued his journey at MIT, founding SEVT in 1986. It was by means of SEVT that he met his spouse and lifelong enterprise companion, Anita Rajan Worden ’90. Collectively, they based two corporations within the photo voltaic electrical and hybrid autos area, and in 2022 launched a photo voltaic electrical boat firm.
On the Charles River, Worden took guests for brief rides on Anita, together with a bunch of present SEVT college students who peppered him with questions. The 20-foot pontoon boat, simply 12 toes large and seven toes tall, is manufactured from carbon fiber composites, single crystalline photo voltaic photovoltaic cells, and lithium iron phosphate battery cells. Finally, Worden envisions the prototype might have functions as mini-ferry boats and water taxis.
With heat and humor, he drew parallels between the boat’s parts and mechanics and people of the photo voltaic automobiles the scholars are constructing. “It is enjoyable! If you consider all of the stuff you guys are doing, it is all the identical stuff,” he advised them, “optimizing all of the totally different techniques and making them work.” He additionally defined the design concerns distinctive to boating functions, like refining the hull form for effectivity and maneuverability in variable water and wind situations, and the important significance of defending wiring and controls from open water and condensate.
“Seeing Anita in all its glory was tremendous cool,” says Nicole Lin, vice captain of SEVT. “After I first noticed it, I might instantly map the totally different components of the photo voltaic automotive to its marine counterparts, which was astonishing to see how far I’ve come as an engineer with SEVT. James additionally defined the boat utilizing photo voltaic automotive phrases, as he drew on his expertise with photo voltaic automobiles for his photo voltaic boats. It blew my thoughts to see the engineering we realized with SEVT in motion.”
Over time, the Wordens have been avid supporters of SEVT and the Edgerton Heart, so the go to was, partly, a solution to pay it ahead to MIT. “There’s plenty of connections,” he says. He is nonetheless awed by the truth that Harold “Doc” Edgerton, upon studying about his curiosity in constructing photo voltaic automobiles, carved out a lab area for him to make use of in Constructing 20 – as a first-year scholar. And some years in the past, as Worden turned fascinated about marine vessels, he tapped Sea Grant Schooling Administrator Drew Bennett for a 90-minute whiteboard lecture, “MIT fire-hose type,” on hydrodynamics. “It was superior!” he says.
Associated Hyperlinks
Solar Electric Vehicle Team
All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com
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