We’ve all seen articles about massive container ships of the future using kites to supplement their engines, but I suspect a really solarpunk future would look a bit further afield, or perhaps further back in time for their ship designs.
I think in any future with humans and continents, people are going to be trying to cross the ocean. There might be less shipping in a world without our abundance of cheap energy, or more of a focus on reducing consumption and producing necessities locally, but people will still trade goods and travel. So what might the ships look like? Return to tallships? Solar panels and electric motors? I love reexamining traditional technologies to see how they can fit with modern engineering and design principles, safety features, and electronics, but I don’t know much about ships, and especially not much about modern sailing.
So what do you think will be bringing back holds full of old world fashions harvested from the Chilaen desert?
How about hot air? If the dirigible is black, sunlight will do most of the heating.
My favourite shipping solution would be vessels pulled by large sea mammals. It sounds very far out there, but then there’s a group (school? herd?) of dolphin somewhere who help people fish, there used to be a whale who helped to guide boats … once we finally manage to talk to them maybe we can come to some kind of agreement.