The wonderful part about being on the ocean is to really enjoy nature in its realm. To hear the quiet, to hear the birds chirping in the background. Maybe, if you're lucky, a whale coming up for a breath. Maybe hearing some sea lions in the background. hearing the waves hit up against your boat. This is the wonderful part about being on the ocean. It's one thing that I, as a biologist, marine biologist, have been able to participate in and enjoy for
a long time. But then there's the other part of being on a boat where you hear the workings of the boat. You hear the engines, you hear the noise of everything that goes on, the smell of that diesel gas that you have, and you're just like, ooh, I really wish I didn't have to smell that. I really wish that that didn't ruin my experience here on the ocean. And there has been an effort, a large effort, to get more electrified on the ocean. Not getting electrocuted,
but electrified in your boat. And so that means a quiet engine. That means you're able to enjoy nature as it's supposed to be enjoyed. And plus, cause less noise and disruption in the ocean. You can be on the water more without feeling guilty, especially if you were worried about noise and whales and how everything affects there. Well, today on the episode, I am speaking with
Simon Angus from Open Water Solar. He is here to talk about his business where he has created durable, flexible solar panels to go onto your boat to help you get more electrified on the water. And it's amazing and I can't wait to show you. So let's start the show here on the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Hey
everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And on today's episode, like I said, we have Simon Angus, who is the CEO of Open Water Solar, a company that makes flexible, durable
solar panels for your boat. This is a way to help you stay with electric sources of energy. This is a way to get your boat running quieter on the ocean. And I think it's a way that we need to move forward. And I feel like the industry is moving forward. In the interview, Simon highlights how the industry is really moving towards being more electric, going towards a hybrid model instead of just I think that's really good. I think it's a step in the right direction, especially
from a commercial space. which is where the Open Water Solar is focusing on. It is really a necessary item, as Simon says in this interview. So this is a really important interview, especially if you are someone who loves to be on the water, on a boat, this is something that you really need to listen to. And I can't wait for you to hear the entire interview. Here is the interview with Simon Angus from Open Water Solar. Enjoy, and I will talk to you after. Hey,
Simon, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready Alright, I love this. This is gonna be a ton of fun. I'm so
pumped about this. I love boats I love being on the water but I don't know much about being on the water because I haven't been enough because I live in Ontario and I don't have access to boats and stuff like that, but we're here with Simon Simon is a guy who loves the ocean just like us and he loves to be on the water and he is solving a problem right now that he had himself and we're gonna talk about that problem and why it's so good and for
everybody else to have. So we're going to talk all about that and why it's good for the ocean. And I'm super excited. But Simon, before we get into Yeah. So I'm a mechanical engineer. I spent 20 plus Counter to what we're trying to do now. But in 2019, being an engineer and a sailor, I made a break and I left my pretty well-paying job to be broke for the next five years. And I designed and built a 40-foot
carbon fiber, all-electric sailing catamaran. And really, that's where this started, is we wanted to produce an all-electric boat that was truly sustainable in terms of its power consumption, that there was no diesel generators, and it was fully electric. And we failed. But we had success in I love how it's like, and we failed, but we had success in something else. I think that's the life of an entrepreneur in problem solving, right? I think it's really interesting.
Very much so. Let's go back into your life becoming a mechanical engineer. Were you always interested Yeah, I was in school. I was good at maths and science, so nobody who who's good at maths and science goes and does anything else generally than engineering. So I went and did that, but I had a love for the ocean. So back then I couldn't afford a boat.
I was a poor student, so I had a windsurfer. And so I spent every weekend I could and even some university days when I should have been in lectures on the water, sailing around and having fun on a windsurfer. And it was only when I moved to Canada that I just was like, wow, this coastline is amazing. And the quality of life, the So I have to ask, so windsurfer, do you mean like surfboard with the triangular sail and you're standing on? Is that
the windsurfer you're talking about? Or are you talking about a specific boat No, windsurfing. So the more scaled mast. And yeah, we had a lot of fun. We were big wave sailors back then, back in the 90s. And I love that. But now this is the UK we're talking about, right? Yep. That's some cold Yeah, you need a pretty good wetsuit if you're in the Irish Sea and you're windsurfing. And there's only ever wind in the winter, right? It's never in the summer. So we
So what's the temperature of the water at that point? You're talking about wintertime. What's the Really cold. I've actually skated down the beach on ice to go windsurfing. Maybe that session only lasted half an Hey, but you did it. You did it. You could say you skated to go windsurfing. I love it. That's such a Canadian thing to do as well, right? I love it. And you got into it because you loved it, but you really have to love it. you know, when you first pick
up that, that windsurfing board, right? Because it's, it's, you're in cold water. It's not ideal conditions, like in the tropics, like what we normally see. What, what made you like your mindset was It's just that thrill. It's, uh, it's just you and nature. Right. And it's that thrill of, of jumping and looping and, and, uh, just having fun on the waves and just being out there. It's just. you and nature and having It's not an easy sport to do. I know that. I have a friend who did it here
It took a couple of years to pick it up. But once you've got the bug, that's it. You're hooked. And it's like any sort of water Yeah. Yeah, it's true. And like you said, you're, you're out on the ocean. It's you in the ocean. Right. And no matter what the conditions are, obviously it's going to be a little wavy. It's going to be, cause it's windy. Um, and you're kind of at the, at the behest of this, this massive body of water. You really get the idea of like,
this is huge. Like this, I'm in a, I'm in a place that is beautiful. It's gorgeous. It can be dangerous at times, you know, I'm going to be as safe as Oh yeah, I'll remember one point in time when me and a buddy were sailing, and we always sailed in pairs, and the masts we used were 4.6 meters high, and he was on one side of the wave, I was on the other, and I lost the sight of his mast. The waves were that big. And so I thought he'd gone down, and about 15 seconds
later, he popped over the top, and I'm like, oh, there you are, Damon. And he's like, yeah, I nearly got munched on that one. Oh my God, that's insane. Just the sheer power, you understand that A hundred percent. Yeah. Now, when you came over to British Columbia, you all the way to the UK to British Columbia, was it for a job Yeah, exactly. So I went to Kinnamat initially and I worked at a
pulp mill. And so I ended up on the West Coast and I've never seen anything Now is this, so you worked at oil and gas in the UK and Yeah. Well, engineer in, in sort of, uh, various, various University, but moved to Canada with the family. And then Kinemat was a place on the West coast of about 8,000 people. And, uh, it snowed about six feet per day in the, in the winter. Um, but the odd day when it was sunny, uh, in the summer. Yeah.
And you sail on the ocean, there's a 1,000 foot waterfall coming off a mountain straight into the ocean. It doesn't get any better than that. It Just the scenery of British Columbia in general, with the backdrop of forests, ocean, and mountains, makes it just absolutely ideal from if you're a photographer or just somebody who just loves to sit and relax. It really makes you think about how uh, impactful nature can be to your, just your mental health in general, right?
Like, Oh, absolutely. I have a goal which I want to execute on very quickly in the next couple of years is that's the ski That's possible. That's very possible. We can do that. So. Oh, wow. Yeah. You should vlog that. You should film that, because I would love to see that. That would be kind of a cool thing. I think that would do well on something like YouTube, to be like, I'm going to ski, mountain bike, and sail on the same day in
That's fantastic. You're working for industries at this time, various industries, but they're industries that use natural resources like oil and gas, pulp and paper. They have this, and I've been there too. I've worked as a private environmental consultant before with oil and gas and mining industries. I didn't work with pulp and paper, more mining, especially that I specialize with to make sure they're following regulations. Obviously, engineers have to meet certain numbers and regulations for
various aspects of what the job they're doing, right? What was your thought process when you're doing it? You love nature so much. You're working for these industries. Obviously, you're trying to do the best job you can. Did you ever wonder like, Because I did this. I'm like, I wonder, is this really worth it? Is this the kind of industry that I want to be in where I know it's harming the environment, but I need a job and I want to be able to
do something. But something in the back of my head is like, I feel like Very much so. It does trouble you when you're in that world. And my response to that is, well, it can be done sort of efficiently and effectively and with minimal effect to the environment. And I'd rather me as an engineer do that than an accountant. And I fell out with accountants a lot of times because they're saying, we've got to amount of the books. And I'm like, well, you know, because it's
not environment friendly or it's not safe, right? So those two You definitely highlight something that's extremely important here is I think the industry gets lumped in as the industry, you know, natural resource industry. The people that work there a lot of the times are trying to do the best they can to make it as environmentally friendly as possible. You know, people are meeting the regulations. They're bending over backwards to do
what they need to do to help the environment. It's not always the case of It's not always the workers, the engineers, the people on the pipes and things like that that are doing a bad job. They're doing their job and they're doing it the best they can. I think it just gets lumped up as a whole industry. People think the people who own it are greedy and they just want more money and they don't care
about the environment. But then you get the people who work in there, who live in the towns and in the remote areas where they go, and they want to see something good. They want to make sure their homes are fine Yeah, absolutely. You've just got to do the best job you can with what you've got and lead from your own. sort of morals and ethics when it comes down to the environment. You see somebody doing something, you Yeah. A hundred percent. Now you had a big pivot at that point,
like obviously the big pivot moving from the UK to move to BC. And then you have a big pivot of like, Hey, you know what? I'm just going to say, I'm earning a good amount of money here. Like I'm comfortable and I can live on my own and I can do what I can, whether I want to ski, bike or, or sail, right. Not the same day or different days. Uh, it's pretty nice life that you had going on. Then you're like, you know what? I
don't like money that much. I'm going to be poor for like five years, not earn money for five years, but I'm going to develop something interesting. But the first iteration, as you said, that you said you failed at was to build a boat yourself. Why So it was like being an engineer and a sailor, I decided to put my skill set and my passion together. And at the end of the day, you've got to do what you love. Yeah. Engineering
and sailing is what I love. So I put them together and design and build this 40-foot sailing catamaran, amazing sailboat. We were sailing at 17 knots of boat speed and 22 knots of breeze. just phenomenal, phenomenal boat. And the goal was really to make it all electric. That was the key. It had to be lightweight, fast, lots of hydrogeneration, but it also had a lot of solar generation as well, because we didn't want to have to even use sort
of like mains grid electricity. We didn't want to charge up. We wanted the boat to be fully self-sufficient. And the solar sucked that bad that we had to go sailing to hydrogenerate to charge the batteries. And that's where we were like, OK, we've got to fix this solar problem. This is a big problem. And it's not just for my boat that I designed that we had the problem. But when we set out and built
this catamaran, we knew nothing about solar. And it was only through understanding and learning about solar that we realized that the current solutions really weren't that good. There's basically the regular solar panels that you put on your house, which I wasn't going to put on a Aluminum frame, really heavy solar panels. Or there's the leisure type, the semi-flex ones. And what we realized with those is they have three fundamental flaws. The first one being real
estate utilization. They come in standard panels, standard sort of rectangles. And you can only fit so many on the roof of the boat. And then you end up with a lot of wasted space. The third problem with them is they suffer micro cracks horrendously. They're just two pieces of plastic encapsulated in the cell, and you look at them wrong and they crack. You carry them wrong on the install, they
crack. And so having all the cells in series means that if one cell sort of starts to degrade and the current drops, then the whole panel's affected. And if multiple panels are connected Um, so, so, and then there's the shading issue. It's a sailboat. We've got a rig. We've got a boom. We've got a mask. We got lots of other Reagan and lots of shading going on. So. Again, having shaded solar cells really cuts down the performance. So we had these problems and
we set out to solve them. If we were to, as a sort of an objective for originally for our boat, so we could have a truly sustainable sort of sailboat, which we didn't need to plug in or run a generator. But then we realized it was more than that. And we could really sort of, we could really facilitate the, the electrification of the marine and other industries if we were able to achieve what we set out The goal was to have a standalone solar panel or
a number of solar panels on a boat. I assume the number of solar panels depend on the size of the boat to get the boat going. that didn't need to plug in when you're on the shore. And so that's why you have the solar panel. So you want an electric boat that didn't need to plug in, because there are some boats that you need to plug in. This one, you don't need to plug in. You just get it from the ocean. That's wonderful. That sounds like the ideal place. It's supposed to
be light. It's supposed to be semi-flexible, as you mentioned, so it can fit like a boat contour. It'll look like it's part of the boat. That's great. doesn't sound like there are many of those available. And so, and you obviously the ones that are have some problems with it. So how does, like, how does that go? Like, obviously, it's a challenge for you as an engineer, you're like, I'm going to make this work. Like, where do you say, where's my like, when when do you say, like, this
is my breaking point of it, if it works, or it doesn't work? Or how Um, basically, it's a it's a commitment thing. So we found 500 ways on not to build our product. We knew we had to encapsulate the solar cells in fiberglass. The goal there was to make it strong, lightweight, durable. We had to create incredibly clear fiberglass by putting an incredibly impermeable object right in the middle of the fiberglass laminate. And that was the challenge. And it had to be completely optically clear. So
we didn't get any degradation in performance of the cells. And so that's what we've done is this is just a very small sample of that panel. As you can see, this is a non-slip version. You can walk on them. And it just looks like a black panel. It's a black piece of fiberglass with No, it doesn't. And it's that thin. So it's 1.3 millimeters thick. Wow. Incredibly lightweight. Yeah. It's flexible. Yeah.
And you can beat it. And you have no micro-cracking because all of that stress and force is taken in by the fiberglass instead of the plastic. So there's no elongation for the cell to crack into. Again, about 500 ways on not to do it. And it took quite a while, about 18 months of R&D to figure out the secret sauce and the magic to make it happen. And then, obviously, we were building them manually, which isn't cost effective in Canada. The labor costs are far too
high. So now we're in the process of automating that entire production. So we can manufacture in Canada. That was, again, another goal of building the boat and the goal of the company was we can manufacture in Canada and we can Gotcha. So now when did you start this company? Was it 2019 technically, like as building the boat, but then pivoting Yeah. So 2019, we started, we started a little bit before that. We built a
canoe and an ACAT, a foiling ACAT. Um, and then just sort of learn about composites, learn about sort of boat design, boat building. And then yeah, 2019 we went straight in and started the, the, the, started to build the molds for Got you. And, and now you're at a point now, where are you at? Are you at a point where you can mass produce these and you can actually Yeah. So we have about 15 or so pilot projects out there on the water, uh, all sort of different stages of product development.
Uh, but we're now at a spot where we've, uh, about three months ago, we nailed down the exact sort of recipe, the process. Uh, and now we're looking to get into full production. Uh, our, our order back is about four or five months long at our current production
rates. but we're looking to increase production over the next couple of months and then really get out there to the market and allow people to put as much solar as they can and basically on their boats to again facilitate the electrification of the marine and transportation sectors. And that's where we're heading is anything that moves, anything that's in harsh environments, our Now it's really funny because you make that last little paragraph that
you just told me there, that answer, you made it sound like it was like nothing. That's pretty exciting. 15 pilot projects and he's found like the actual formula now. You know what to make. That's super exciting to see. And now you're saying like, look, we're going to start putting it out so they can get as many. uh, solar panels on it. So these are not necessarily going to be solar panels on new boats. You can add them to your own existing boat.
Yeah. So you can basically, we can build any size, any shape. Um, so you can add them to, uh, existing boats. There'll be a new boats. Um, uh, so yeah, you, you basically build a template, take a picture of the template and we can build the solar panel to suit. So we can curve to the curve to the shape of the boats and really maximize that real estate utilization because solar is not perfect. It's only right now 24, 25% efficient in terms
of the energy you're getting from the sun. So the conversion rates are not great. So by the time you take into account the little gaps between the solar cells, we're about 250 watts per meter squared. And that's not a lot. So you really want to utilize that real estate as much as you can. And for a boat, we've actually came up with a protocol floating solar. So it's fundamentally an inflatable paddleboard type design, which accordions out
and you throw it behind your boat. And it's a 300 watt panel and it just sits there without any shade and just sits there and generates power. That's amazing. So again, that's solving the real estate utilization problem for mostly for monohulls.
cloudy outside, you're not going to be able to go anywhere. Can you talk just a little bit about some of the myths of solar and are they true or not, or some of the things that people say about solar that you may have heard, like are they true, are they not, what's true, what's not, what do people have to look at when they start to think about using solar on Yeah, so all the myths or whatever people hear are true because they come up with them, And it's
a direct experience of people. One of the things that we realized is that designing a solar system for a boat actually isn't easy. How the panels are wired together, the voltage that you use, the battery voltage, the bypassed out orientation, All of those things have to come into account, even the direction that the
solar panel faces. If you have one solar panel on one surface and it faces a slightly different direction to the sun than the other surface, then it's the one that has the least sun angle that is going to drive the performance of the panel. Same with shading as well with bypass diodes. If you orientate the panel the wrong direction and you cast a shadow over the panel, well, you could either eliminate
just one string or you can eliminate the entire panel from the circuit. So, there's a lot to think about when we do do a design for a boat, especially a sailboat. On a boat, obviously, there's less shading, less issues, but again, still got to be thoughtful in terms of voltages, current, whether it's going to be series or parallel, what solar controls to use. So, we don't recommend just people go in to put a panel on the boat and say, now I've got solar, because they won't.
They won't have good performance. So you really got to think about it, how the panels are orientated, how they're strung together, how the bypass diodes are orientated. All those things have got to be thought about when you start to design your Yeah, it's really interesting to think about that. And then a lot of boat, people who have boats, they're really in tune with their boats. They know what's
needed and what's not. So I feel like having, this is a good market to work with because looking at what they do with their boat, how often they service their boat, and
they get to know it quite well, it'd be easy to work with them. So I guess a lot of these jobs would be almost like a custom, sort of job right because you don't know because everybody's going to be different in terms of how many Exactly so we do have standard products that you can just go and put on the boat but again not that successful in terms of how much power you're going to generate but then when it comes to sort of more of the electrification of the drive system and
you've become more reliant on solar now rather than a nice to have It's got to be designed right, so we get into doing custom designs, working around hatches. rigging lines, travelers, and things like that. And so we can maximize the amount of real estate and then minimize the amount of downtime from Yeah, well, interesting. What about in terms of efficiency, like clouds? Obviously, you're up in Canada. It gets cloudy at times. Are people going
Yeah, it's definitely an issue. Solar relies on the sun. When it's bright out, in terms of light cloud, you can get up to 25% out of a solar panel. Obviously, a really thick, cloudy day, maybe you're down to 5%. But at the end of the day, most of us are using our boats in the summer when it's nice out. And then we've got lots of solar, right? After they ski and
But yeah, it's definitely a thing, but it's like anything with sailing. You, um, you have to think about where you're going, what the targets are, what the currents are, what the wind's doing. Um, and it's just another thing to think about. What's my power consumption. If, if you're going to commit to an electric boat, then you add one other tactic that you've got to deal with, right. In terms of like with my boat, for example, um, it'll do nine knots under
for about 10 minutes, and then the battery's dead. Or typically if we're running both 12 kilowatt drives, full belt, yeah, you've only got a few, maybe 15 minutes. So that means I can't go through some of the narrows in the wrong tide, where maybe you can with a diesel, because you don't have the energy density. So again, it's just another thing to
think about as a sailor when you go out. You've Yeah, and I think it's interesting, too, because I have an EV, like a car, and I find that I have to do just a little extra planning when I go out to make sure, like if I'm going on a long trip, I've got to make sure that I can find the right, you know, where all the chargers are so that I can do it in line and I can continue on with myself. You don't want to run out of, just like you don't want to run out of gas, you
don't want to run out of electricity. Now, of course, I have the opportunity to pull over and go to a charger and charge over as someone with a gas-powered vehicle can go over and get some gas. That's not always the case in the ocean, depending on where you're going and areas. You probably want to go to a remote place and enjoy yourself and do some fishing or swimming or whatever that might be. We're just sailing around. So
you're not always around. So you have to just plan a little bit just to make sure that you can have it now. So when people are when you talk about having an electric boat, like a solar boat like this, are people using part solar and part like Yeah, so we've actually, there's been a big, certainly in the new boat world, there's a lot of hybrid boats being built right now. Whereas we've already done two projects for hybrid boats where it's a diesel electric.
And that's very efficient when it comes to generating power. You're running the diesel engine at a constant speed. It's tuned for the generator. And then when you're doing close marina sort of maneuvers, then you're just in with the electric drive. We're doing an 80-foot catamaran right now, where we're doing 24 kilowatts of solar. It's an 80-foot expedition yacht, and we'll be able to handle sort of all of the hotel loads with the solar. So he can sit at an anchorage and
not have to run a diesel generator. If he wants to cross the Atlantic, yeah, he's going to have to run his engines. Batteries aren't that good right now. They're going to get better, but they're not the solution, right? Yeah. So there is compromises Yeah, and this is just the beginning of it, right? It's just like EVs in the car industry. they're going to get better and
better as you go along. You are really just starting. As you said, some of the panels that you tried before you started this venture weren't the greatest and they chipped a lot and they broke a lot. Now, you're getting a little bit more durable, you're getting a little bit more length out of it, a little bit more usability. Then I'm sure over time that iteration is going to get even longer and longer as you go through and as you discover more and we do more. I find a lot of people right
now, they expect the best right off the bat. And that's not how it works. Even the car when it was first invented, it was never just the best, like the gas powered car. It was never just like from what we get now to a Porsche. You know what I mean? It wasn't like that. And it was slow. And there was a lot of problems with it. And I'm sure people didn't love them right off the bat. This, I love, I love the fact that you can do this because even if you run it side by side with a hybrid and
use it with a hybrid engine, at least you're powering it. You're using less noise, uh, on, on the, on the water. You're enjoying it a lot more because you can, you don't have to have the noise that you get to really hear the ocean. When you're on the water and you want to power through something, you can really hear nature. You can really hear what's going on, maybe a whale or two in that time, you never know. You live in a very productive area, so I think it'd be cool to see
that. But I think that's what is the real benefit from an ocean perspective is that noise. On your website, you actually talk about that a little bit, about not creating noise to protect oceans. Can Yeah, so like anything, there's like within BC, we've got BC ferries, they're obviously making huge amounts of noise. Yeah. But you do what you can, right? And obviously, the studies out there which have said sort of marine use by humans affects the marine population, the marine mammals. So
again, you do what you can. which is not perfect, you do what you can to help out, right? And do your part. If everyone did their part, then everything would be a lot better. So we're just facilitating that process, just providing a technical solution to give people the opportunities to generate more power from the sun, let the panels last longer so they're actually usable in five years' time, and give people the option to enjoy nature quieter.
I love that. I think that's where it's at, right? It's just keeping nature quieter. I think that's what we always want, and I think it's a great way to enjoy life and enjoy the ocean. I did have a question. I forgot what my train of thought was, but I'll get it in a second. When you look at, oh, here's the question I had. You mentioned you had 15 pilot studies. How did you get people, is this on people's actual boats or are these like test
Yeah, so we've really done no marketing right now. We have the website, we just got a new marketing manager, Tony, he's done an excellent job on the website and setting up interviews like this so we can get the word out there. But until we're actually in production, in sort of automated production, then We're not marketing too heavily right now because, again, we can't keep up with the demand. But the people that we have put the panels on have been really happy with them. And they've
came to us and said, look, we've got a problem here. And a number of projects have actually been where we've been replacing original solar panels put down because they just weren't performing like they should be. We've done several projects where we've actually taken solar panels off and put down ours because the customer gets it. He wants solar. They
want solar. They want to be independent. We did one project, the very first project we did, he sailed around Vancouver two and a half times, sorry, Vancouver Island two and a half times in the summer and didn't plug in And granted, it is a diesel drive boat, and it is a sailboat. But again, it's the summer. You're using induction stove, using lights, using air conditioning. And the solar power generation meant that he didn't need to plug in once. And really,
he was not in marinas anyway. He didn't have to go to a marina. So he could save a lot of costs there. He could anchor out. and hence he would just put the sails up and sail to the next destination. He's not hydrogenerating in that scenario, so all of the hotel loads have to come from solar. All your navigation systems, all your electronics have to come from solar power. And
he was able to do that. So that was a great, great case study where he's like, yeah, I haven't needed to run the generator, run the engines for the purpose of charging the batteries. And I haven't needed to plug in for two and a half laps of Vancouver Island. So it was pretty good to hear. That's unreal
to hear that story. It really makes a difference when you hear the case studies like that to say, I go around Vancouver Island, which is a big island, we're not talking about a small island here, and to be able to do it two and a half times without having to go into a marina. That's incredible. That's absolutely to charge. That's
phenomenal. Now, when you get the solar panels, it Yeah, so typical solar, you're going to go from the solar panel to a breaker, then to an MPPT, ideally to another breaker, do it safely, and then into the battery bank. So when people are designing a solar system, I always say work backwards from what you're going to use. So figure out what your loads are. Figure out, do you have air conditioning? Is that a 110 system? What are the loads? How long do you want to run that for, typically? What
is the power supply there? What's the demand? What's your fridge drawer? Do you have a water maker? What's that drawer? Do you have an electric heater? What's that drawer? And then so you write out all of the drawers, the electrical current drawers, and then you say, right, now, assuming there's no power available to me, how big do I need my batteries? How long do I want to run for with my battery bank? So now you've
got your battery bank sized. And then you look at the solar and say, right, how long do I want to be away from plugging in to charge those batteries up? And hopefully your boat's big enough that you can put enough solar on is to satisfy the demand and use the battery more of a surge capacitor. So you've got nighttime use of power and charge up in the daytime. But yeah, I always tell people work backwards from what you're going to use to I think that's definitely
common sense when you talk about it that way. Not a lot of people think that way, but now we start thinking about how much we draw on electricity. I love having the batteries and the batteries are going to get more efficient and better as we go along too. And I think that's going to help the industry both not only in cars, but also obviously in boats. and maybe you can do a five-time, double that around Vancouver Island.
I think that would be pretty cool to hear that. This is incredible and it's going to be on the market once everything goes into production and you find a way or you found a way to do it. Now, it's just a matter of putting it through. That's going to be amazing. When do you hope that this is? This is obviously fingers crossed, knocking on wood. When Yeah, so we have orders right now, but we're still manually
building the panels. So by April, May time in this year, we'll have the production up and running and we'll be really going to the market hard and really communicating what we've got, what are the benefits of it. We'll be at a lot of the boat shows. We're actually at the Seattle Boat Show from the 28th, well, Vancouver Boat Show from the 28th to the 30th in Intrepid Marines booth. So look out for us there. And then we're at the Seattle Boat Show. Open Waters has their own booth there at
the Seattle Boat Show early February. Nice. So come by. come check us out and come have a chat about solar Absolutely. Now, if people like, I'll send them to the website if people want to get more information. And if people, and if they live, do they have to live on the West Coast or like of North America, or can they, like, you can do these anywhere? Yeah, we've shipped to Vietnam, to Turkey, to Finland. We've shipped, we will be shipping to New Zealand this month, the UK.
So yeah, we're shipping globally already. That was important for us to sort of establish sort of the product in various areas. We are in British Columbia, it is cold, so we needed some exposures, some tropical, tropical heat too. So we've sold into- Especially the winter months. Yeah, we've sold into Carriacou, down in the ABC Islands and also down into Florida, a couple of projects as well. Very nice. So yeah, these panels have seen some
Yeah. Nice. How is the rest of the boating industry reacting to this type Well, it's like you said, we've really not gone to market in a big way yet. We are going to match trade in November this year. So that'll be sort of a big display of the technology. But like I said earlier, a lot of manufacturers are moving towards hybrid boats. So what that starts to mean is that solar now becomes a necessity than a nice to have. So when it's a nice to have, it's triple charging the
batteries, it's keeping them charged. So when you go out, your battery's not dead. it's really nice to have, you really don't care, you're not keeping track of the solar, but when it's a necessity, when you really have the option to drive your boat on electrical power, not run the diesel engines, then you've really got to pay attention, and for that you need
quality panels that are going to last. And then the other side of it is, if you're taking all this real estate up on a boat, real estate's precious, you want to use it, you want to be able to throw a yoga mat down, or have a dance party on it, as much as you can. They're fully adhered to the boat, they become part of the structure, and you can just use the surface like any other surface, so you're not compromising on They do get hot. They're black surface. Yeah. So the nature of solar, it
is a black surface. They do get warm. The best thing about black surfaces is if there's a breeze blowing across them, there's a natural cooling. Worst case is you've got full sun, zero breeze, and yeah, Yeah, so you won't wear deck shoes if you're walking on them when it's that warm. But typically, you're sailing, there's breeze, you're moving through the water, there's breeze, that's a cooling effect. And yeah, we end up being
Amazing. Okay, cool. This is a lot of fun. So people can check you and I'm gonna if you send me those links I'm gonna put those in The show notes of where you're gonna be in those boat shows so that people can come and talk to you I think this is such a great technology. I can't wait for it to like start seeing it everywhere on boats you should you should start to market to some of the the government boats too, to get them on those field boats, the
environmental people's field boats. The applications are We've started in the marine sector, the leisure marine, because really because of the demand. There's a want there to get off diesel, to get onto electric house loads, electric propulsion. There's a real want there. And that's going to follow suit down into industry as well. And when it comes to industry, it's all about money. It's
all about health savings. You can displace diesel with electric you're just now talking about ROI you return on your investment and we can put solar panels on a 53 foot refrigerated trailer and give the owners of those reefer trailers about a three-year ROI. Yeah. Which again, so the leisure industry, nice to have people want it, but in the commercial space, it's always going to be about money. And we allow people to get off diesel and to get onto electric power
when they have large real estate. The downside is, I don't think you'll ever see solar on a car. And if it is, it's a bit of You need a big surface area. big boats, catamarans, we're going to see solar on ships eventually. So BC Ferries, biggest ferry company in the world, or one of the biggest ferry companies in the world, they're starting to switch to electric. So again, we can take that energy and put it straight into those batteries. and
use them for propulsion. Yeah, it's not going to be the solution, but it'll take the load off the grid as well when you then try to Absolutely, I love that. I love how, Simon, you took your two passions, you meld them together, like I'm gonna help find solutions for these. It's phenomenal what you've been able to do. You and your team have been able to do. I think it's great. I can't wait to see what's happening in like six
months to a year. I'd love to have you back on and be able to talk more about what's been happening to get updates. But thank you so much for coming on the podcast and discussing this with us and telling your story because This is where I feel like we really need to push forward is highlight companies who are doing not only good for the ocean, but just good for people and their businesses and their money and getting it cheaper. And I think it's wonderful.
So thank you so much, Simon, for joining me on It was a pleasure and it was great chatting. I love talking about something that's passionate. So it's good. Absolutely. Thank you so much. All Thank you, Simon, for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I love bringing this type of content to you, the audience, because it's something that we all need to hear. But we just don't I
didn't know this was happening. I didn't know this was happening until the marketing manager, Tony, reached out to me. after I put out an episode on how China's putting solar panels in the ocean to get more energy for its people. That's pretty cool. And Tony's like, hey, you know what? You got to really look at what Simon's doing with open water solar. It's incredible. And it's going to change the boating industry in the
future. And it definitely has. He talked about how he was an engineer and how he came up in the oil and gas industry and then the pulp and paper industry and moving to different industries. And he's like, you know what? I wanna do something that's good. I wanna build a boat, put solar on it, make it completely self-sustainable so I don't have to charge, I don't have to plug in. And then he realized, well, the solar panels they have now, like currently, weren't
that great. So he decided, hey, you know what? We're gonna make a better one. And he decided to do that. And he has done that and he is making it for everybody else. And I just think it's amazing. And so I'm going to put up the website so people can get a get in touch. I'm going to put up any social media sites so you can take a look at what they're up to. And I'm going to put those dates that he talked about and the boat
shows in the show notes as well. And if you have any questions for me, you want to talk to me, hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean that's at how to protect the ocean. And of course, you can see me on YouTube, on Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. All you have to do is just click subscribe on those platforms and hit the notification bell so you don't miss an episode. And that's our episode for today. I am your host, Angelo, and
thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have