As the ultimate symbol of wealth, superyachts have witnessed a strong increase in demand during the pandemic, when the super-rich are eager for privacy and expand social distance in the most luxurious and exclusive way.
However, superyachts are having a negative impact on the Earth. According to a calculation by anthropolics experts at Indiana University (USA), a superyacht with a permanent crew, helicopters, Submarines and lakes emits more than 7,000 tons of CO2 per year. In addition, superyacht teams around the world issue more than 2 million tons of CO2 each year, more than the annual emissions of about 1/4 of countries in the world.
To address this, a businessman in Singapore is coming up with the idea of building a zero-emission superyacht by taking advantage of the luxurious halo of superyachts and combining it with scientific research - in a bold mission to save the planet.
Floating computer
According to CNN, the new ship was the idea of Aaon Olivera - a Singaporean businessman of Gilbraltar origin. If built, the new ship - named Earth 300 after its length of 300 meters - will overwhelm the world's largest superyacht - the 180-meter-long Azzam, owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family.
The preliminary design has a beautiful and bold design, with a unique 13-storey sphere that will contain more than 20 scientific laboratories. The laboratories will collect data from the ship's trips in the hope of providing solutions to help mitigate the climate crisis.
Putting it into an open source platform to allow the global community to participate, data will be powered by a quantum computer, a new type of computer that uses the properties of quantum mechanics to achieve incredible speed and power. Quint computers are not yet on the market, but are currently the subject of experimental research by Google and IBM.
The 425-man capacity of the future ship will include 165 shipmen and 160 scientists. There will also be 20 students and a group of 20 permanent experts - including economists, engineers, explorers, artists, activists and politicians - Olivera said.
The only paying guests will be wealthy tourists in the ship's 20 VIP rooms, with an estimated cost of just over $1 million/person, to fund scientific research.
"This ship will be a floating computer that allows people from all over the world to join the journey. That means the richest people in the world will have to share their experiences with the world, not just with themselves," Olivera said.
The global ship
Olivera expects Earth 300 to become a representative object of its generation, and compare it to the Olympic torch and the Eiffel Tower.
The reason we are building a ship is because climate change is a global problem, so it needs a global vehicle, he said. He added that the oceans are the beating heart of the planet, because they absorb most of the carbon.
Olivera said the inspiration for Earth 300 came while he was diving in the Maldives and saw a coral reef about to die. He envisioned the ship as a way to combine two worlds of conflict - luxury and environmentalism.
"We want to create a new brand for the enlightenment consumer, to turn the situation around in the way people perceive the rich and show that they can and should take the lead," he said.
The idea of a luxury research vessel is not completely new. REV Ocean - a similar project in Norway - is a $350 million, 180-meter-long superyacht designed to investigate overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution. REV Ocean was scheduled to launch in 2022, but the project has been delayed for three to five years due to problems in the construction of the vessel.
With $700 million, the projected cost of the Earth 300 is double the REV Ocean and Olivera are considering shipyards in Germany and South Korea to build. He said the preliminary design of the ship and its naval techniques were mostly complete, and hoped it would be ready for a first trip of the decade, expected in 2025.
Nuclear superyacht?
The ship will initially use green synthetic fuel, but to meet the requirement of zero emissions, Olivera plans to equip an additional hot salt reactor, a modern nuclear reactor model.
It will allow ships to operate at sea indefinitely, completely autonomous in terms of energy. Like quantum computers, the technology doesnt exist yet, but its being developed by British company Core Power in partnership with Terra Power, a nuclear engineering firm chaired by Bill Gates. This is one of dozens of entities that have announced their relationship with the project, including IBM, naval architecture studio Iddes Yachts and ship classification company RINA.
