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Electric Catamarans Can Become The Future Of Maltese Sea Travel, But This Engineer Needs Your Help

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Sustainable electric catamarans are being produced in Portugal, and engineer Lukasz Karas wants to bring the environmentally friendly marine reality to Malta through a fundraiser.

The goal is €625,405 – the exact price that it will cost to buy the electric boat called the CAT 12.0 and Karas’ plan is to bring it to Malta and gather accurate data about its environmental benefits to further encourage more investment into the use of this vessel.

However, despite constant information about electric vehicles like cars, busses and bikes being pumped out and endorsed by the government – electric marine vessels are hardly being spoken of.

So here’s some background on this new eco-friendly vehicle.

The CAT 12.0 is a solar-electric catamaran produced by Sun Concept, an innovative Portuguese builder, and supported by the EU which covered some of the development costs – explaining the much cheaper price in comparison to other similar vehicles.

A description of the boat calls it “wide, versatile and extremely comfortable”.

“Navigating in rivers, lakes and seas using Solar Energy, dismissing fossil fuels, cancelling out emanation of gases, smells and spills, highlighting the sound of water and nature like the simplicity of a motor vessel is the challenge that the CAT 12.0 Lounge does!”

The catamaran uses electric motors and solar energy that is collected by photovoltaic panels and stored in existing batteries on the boat to power the vessel.

Without fossil fuel consumption, the CAT 12.0 was designed to sail at zero cost and still benefits of 85% more economical maintenance than traditional boats.

Unlike other boats in this market, the CAT 12.0 prioritises environmental sustainability over luxury features like silence – which it still has.

CAT 12.0

CAT 12.0

Karas chose Malta because he believes that such a vehicle would be much more useful and important on islands, they also need be run a lot more sustainably, he said.

He further stressed the need of studies into these marine vessels to be conducted so that they are more widely understood and thus adopted – Karas’ initiative is the first step to get Maltese people talking.

If he can accurately record the benefits that the CAT 12.0 reaps on the island, other countries can follow and implement a more sustainable marine procedure. 

Donate here to help Karas make an impactful and sustainable change that our environment desperately needs.

What do you think about this?

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Ana is a university graduate who loves a heated debate, she’s very passionate about humanitarian issues and justice. In her free time you’ll probably catch her binge watching way too many TV shows or thinking about her next meal.

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