Long before solar ferries became news, a few Swiss lakes were already quietly running them. One of the pioneers was Mark Wüst, founder of the boatyard MW-Line in Yvonand on Lake Neuchâtel.
In the mid-1990s MW-Line launched Solifleur and its sister Chlorophylle: two 8.5-metre solar boats for 12 passengers, put into regular public service at Yverdon-les-Bains. A simple solar roof shaded the passengers and charged the batteries. One clever detail: when the boats were moored and their batteries full, the surplus solar power went into the town’s electricity grid, so the boats acted as small power plants on the water.
Solifleur showed that small, slow, regular passenger services are a perfect match for solar power. Wüst went on to build more than 30 solar boats for public transport, private owners and experiments. They include the solar catamaran sun21, which crossed the Atlantic on solar power in 2006–2007.
Technical data
| Builder | Mark Wüst, MW-Line SA, Yvonand (CH) |
|---|---|
| In service | Mid-1990s, Yverdon-les-Bains / Lake Neuchâtel |
| Length | 8.5 m |
| Passengers | 12 |
| Solar | Solar roof charging the batteries; surplus fed to the town grid when moored |
| Sister boat | Chlorophylle |
Photo: Theo Schmidt / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sources: Inland Waterways International · Transatlantic21: Mark Wüst CV