If you want to replace the 80 MW of a big engine [1] you'll need quite some square meters. Let's assume the solar array operates at some medium yield of 4,5 kW

If you want to replace the 80 MW of a big engine [1] you'll need quite some square meters. Let's assume the solar array operates at some medium yield of 4,5 kWh / (sqm * day) [2]. Assuming you have some big enough battery on board to evenly supply the solar harvest of the sunny hours over 24h this results in a contant power output of: ~ 0,18 kW / sqm So to replace the 80 MW engine you'd need a solar array of more than 400000 sqm. If you tow several floating arrays that are 100 m wide and 200 m long, you'd need 20 of those. Sounds like a challenge at least for the huge vessels. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4-Sulzer_RTA96-C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4-Sulzer_RTA9... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#Solar_potential_maps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#Solar_potenti...