Green-Designed Passenger Boat Debuts

A green-designed passenger boat, “The Explorer,” recently completed a journey from Freeport, Florida to its home port in Pittsburgh.

This green-engineered floating classroom is a 90-foot, 150-passenger vessel, designed by RiverQuest, which conducts river-based experiential sustainability education on ecology, climate change, green engineering and river history and culture.

Because there are no official standards for the design of “green” boats, RiverQuest assembled a team of naval architects, marine and electric-drive engineers, and green building experts to design the boat.

“We congratulate the engineering, design and green-building teams for an incredible achievement in building a boat that truly is the first of a kind – setting the educational standard for rivers-based science programs and setting a new green standard for marine vessels,” said Maxwell King, president of The Heinz Endowments.

The foundation, a steady supporter of RiverQuest since its founding in 1991, has contributed more than $1 million toward Explorer’s $3.5 million construction cost. Other significant funders are the Richard King Mellon Foundation, The Buhl Foundation, the Hillman Foundation and the state Departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation & Natural Resources.

King said the development of green certification for watercraft would bring significant health benefits to Allegheny County, where more than a third of its diesel particulate pollution comes from the 28,000 registered recreational watercraft that run on the region’s rivers.

The design and construction team assessed some 100 different green technologies and applied the most applicable and feasible to Explorer. The hybrid diesel-electric, battery powered boat includes:

* A state-of-the-art, Siemens hybrid propulsion system and integrated electrical system that is the first commercial implementation in the world.

* The world’s first marine application of the LEED design and construction standards that includes sustainable coatings and paints, architectural windows, HVAC systems and a hull made of 100% certified steel.

* The ability to retrofit the power plant with solar, hydro and fuel cell technologies. RiverQuest will be adding a 1.5kW solar array to Explorer’s roof later this year and plans to add wind and water turbines to the boat and to its expanded dock and landside facility.
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* Water conservation technologies including the use of river water and waterless waste systems.

The unique boat is designed to educate tens of thousands of K-12 students in the Ohio Valley, from western Pennsylvania to Missouri. All who board the vessel for hands-on learning will be connected with global environmental issues and specific challenges and opportunities such as water quality and quantity, climate change, responsible land use, renewable energy and green design. RiverQuest will also make the boat available to adult tourists and businesses.

Through a unique hands-on curriculum that involves water sampling and quality testing along rivers, public policy discussions and engagement with the boat’s green design features, students see firsthand the results of poor land and water use and learn the role that people and industry have in conservation and sustainability.

www.RiverQuest.org