France’s PlanetSolar is using Autodesk’s digital prototyping technology and training to help it design and build a solar-powered catamaran set to travel around the globe.

“Engineers and scientists need to be motivated to develop innovative technologies that inspire people and show that we can achieve the impossible,” said Raphael Domjan, president of PlanetSolar. “Autodesk software enables our engineers to carry out extensive testing without wasting time and materials building a costly physical prototype.”

PlanetSolar’s maiden voyage is set to begin sometime in 2010.

“Currently at the design stage, it will be a boat of impressive proportions, and yet it will be both silent and clean,” says PlanetSolar’s Website. “The goal is to navigate around the world at an average speed of 10 knots — no mean feat for a solar-powered craft.”

The multi-hull vessel will be built by the Knierim Yacht Club of Kiel, Germany. Designed to be operated by two sailors, the boat will be able to accommodate more than 50 people during planned publicity stops at ports around the globe.

Once it’s completed, PlanetSolar will be the “biggest solar run ship in the world,” the designers say. Sporting 470 square metres of photovoltaics, the 31-metre-long vessel will be able to produce up to 103.4 kilowatts of solar-based electricity for operations.

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