Meet the IIT Madras graduate who has built India’s first solar boat ferry

Thirty-eight year old Sandith Thandasherry has a passion for boats and today is proud to have launched India's first solar ferry. An IIM-Madras graduate who has an MBA from INSEAD, France, this naval architect chose Kochi, Kerala, for his start-up NavAlt Solar & Electric Boats. He spent a lot of time and energy in research and today many of his friends have invested in his company too in order to support his dreams. In an exclusive chat with dna, Sandith talks about the solar ferry and what he has achieved so far.

You did Naval Architecture from IIT Madras. Did you always want to create something new with marine design?

Right from my IIT days, I always wanted to set up a boat-building facility and come up with some innovative products (having so many smart people around you, it helps you to build the dream).

How did you come up with the idea of the solar boat ferry?

As a marine design firm, we have been tinkering with solar boats from 2009 for innovation in the application of solar energy in water transport (which is my area of specialisation). We started with small cruise boats and soon realised that the biggest opportunity was in large passenger water transport boats. We were looking for a business partner. Coincidentally AltEn, the largest solar boat manufacture in the world, was looking for a partner in India. Its founder, Philippe, takes vacations in Kerala every two years and he felt India was a market to explore. He found us through the Internet (we had made smaller boats by then) so we met, discussing the possibility of a joint venture. We then signed the JV to form a NavAlt (50% share each). NavAlt was to design and build solar and electric boats for the Indian market.

The solar ferry that can seat 75 people.

What makes your solar ferries cost-effective? 

Our solar ferries focus on innovation at two levels. Firstly, the boat is much better designed for passenger comfort (modern, light composites instead of steel/wood, good interiors and design). This can be adopted by conventional ferries. Second and most importantly, our boats are completely eco-friendly with no fuel on board. This is not easy for other firms to replicate and needs a lot of design effort and technology development. 

The only capable foreign manufacturer is AltEn ferries in France with a cost that is 2.5 times our price. We have brought complete design and manufacturing to India and kept design validation and a critical power train (lithium-battery, battery management, motor controller, motors) to be supplied by AltEn. With this lower cost, our boats become economically viable in less than two years.

Let’s take the case of a 75 passenger ferry. The conventional ferry (steel or wood) costs Rs 60 lakhs while a composite conventional ferry costs Rs 1.5 crore. The solar ferry costs Rs 3 crore which becomes Rs 2 crore after MNRE subsidy. The fuel bill is Rs 20-25 lakhs for the conventional ferry and Rs 0 for the solar ferry. The break-even period is two years whereas it is five or six years for the old steel or wood boats.

How will the solar ferries help the environment?

Solar ferries are free from air, water and noise pollution. There’s no smell of diesel or petrol fumes. Since there’s very low vibration, it makes it more comfortable for passengers. If we factor in the cost of pollution caused by diesel boats, then solar boats are break-even from day one.

How important is research when developing a new product? 

If we have to come up with any innovative product we need to spend a lot of time and money on research. We have been doing ours in water transportation and solar application from 2008. Our JV partner AltEn has been doing research on this from the 1980s.

What plans next?

We are working on two areas: i) designing 150 passenger solar ferry and ii) 50/100 passenger solar hybrid boat (both solar and diesel so that it can be faster, higher range and air-conditioned).