Nuclear-powered super yachts are being designed to save the planet.
As the ultimate symbols of wealth, superyachts have seen a sharp increase in demand during the pandemic, as the super-rich crave privacy and social distancing in luxury. , the most exclusive.
However, superyachts are negatively impacting the Earth. According to a calculation by anthropologists from Indiana University (USA), a super yacht with a permanent crew, helipad, submarine and swimming pool emits more than 7,000 tons of CO2 per year. Multiplied, the worldwide superyacht fleet emits more than 2 million tons of CO2 each year, more than the annual emissions of about a quarter of the world’s countries.
To tackle this situation, an entrepreneur in Singapore is coming up with the idea of building a zero-emission superyacht by taking advantage of the luxury aura of superyachts and combining it with scientific research – in a quest Be bold to save the planet.
Floating computer
According to CNN, the new ship is the idea of Aaon Olivera – a Singaporean businessman originally from Gilbraltar. If built, the new ship – named Earth 300 after its 300-metre length – would dwarf even the world’s largest superyacht – the 180-metre Azzam, owned by the royal family Abu Dhabi.
The preliminary design is sleek and bold, with a unique 13-story sphere that will house more than 20 science laboratories. These labs will collect data from the ship’s voyages to hopefully come up with solutions to help mitigate the climate crisis.
Embedded in an open source platform to enable global community participation, the data will be powered by a quantum computer, a new type of computer that uses the properties of quantum mechanics to achieve high speeds. Incredible strength and power. Quantum computers are not yet commercially available, but are currently the subject of experimental research by Google and IBM.
The future ship’s 425-person capacity will include 165 sailors and 160 scientists. In addition, there will also be 20 students and a group of 20 resident experts – including economists, engineers, explorers, artists, activists and politicians – Olivera said.
The only paying guests will be wealthy tourists staying in the ship’s 20 VIP suites, at an expected cost of just over $1 million per person, to fund scientific research.
“This ship will be a floating computer that will allow people from all over the world to participate in the journey. That means the richest people in this world will have to share their experiences with the world, not just with themselves” – Olivera said.
The global ship
Olivera expected the Earth 300 to become an iconic object of its generation, and drew comparisons to the Olympic torch and the Eiffel Tower.
“The reason we built a ship is because climate change is a global issue, so it needs a global vehicle,” he said. He added that the oceans are the beating heart of the planet, because they absorb most of the carbon.
Olivera said the inspiration for Earth 300 came when he was diving in the Maldives and saw a dying coral reef. He envisioned the ship as a way of combining two colliding worlds – luxury and environmentalism.
“We wanted to create a new brand of enlightened adventurer, to turn the tide on the way people view the wealthy and show that they can and should be at the forefront,” he said.
The idea of a luxury research vessel is not entirely new. REV Ocean – a similar project in Norway – is a $350 million, 180-meter superyacht designed to investigate overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution. REV Ocean was supposed to launch in 2022, but the project has been delayed by three to five years due to problems with the ship’s construction.
At $700 million, the expected cost of Earth 300 is twice that of REV Ocean, and Olivera is looking at shipyards in Germany and Korea for construction. He said the ship’s preliminary design and naval engineering were mostly complete, and it was hoped to be ready for a maiden voyage this decade, scheduled for 2025.
Nuclear super yacht?
Initially, the ship will use green synthetic fuel, but to meet the completely zero-emission requirement, Olivera plans to retrofit a molten salt reactor, a type of modern nuclear reactor .
It will allow the ship to operate at sea indefinitely, with complete energy autonomy. Like quantum computers, this technology does not yet exist, but it is being developed by British company Core Power in collaboration with TerraPower, a nuclear engineering company chaired by Bill Gates. It is one of dozens of entities that have announced relationships with the project, including IBM, naval architecture studio Iddes Yachts and ship classification firm RINA.
