Early this week, the M/V Auriga Leader, a large cargo ship almost completely powered by solar panels was unveiled in the Port of Long Beach, California. This ship, a joint creation by the Port of Long Beach, Toyota and Tokyo-based shipping company, NYK Line, is powered by 328 solar panels connected to its main electricity grid.

The cargo shipping industry is a large source of CO2 emissions. Other cargo ships have been invented to use solar power to reduce their green house gas emissions, but non have ever depended primarily on solar for electricity, until the Auriga Leader.

Click on the Inhabitat article to read more and see pictures!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Green Shipping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.