My Impossible mission

Okay that's fine, I just was getting into the bigger picture.

 

I havent read all the posts yet so someone may have already come up with this idea: For most of the worlds rivers and many large freshwater lakes you might consider big flat barge-type vessels similar to those that already exist all over North America from bays, sounds along the east coast and gulf coast...to rivers like the Mississippi, Ohio, and St Lawrence seaway or Columbia..... except that these barges would have solar panels and batteries....
The solar panels would be attached to a "roof-like deck" which is hinged back at one end so it opens from the front like the jaws of an crocodile. Cargo can be dropped onto the bow area of the lower "cargo deck" after the upper "solar-paneled deck" has been opened in this manner. Aluminum cargo containers can be rolled on tiny wheels like cargo aircraft have on their floors.... all the way to the rear of the barge...loaded like a semi-truck is...back to front. The "green" part of the equation is of course the solar panels above and batteries stored somewhere below in the bilges of each barge....the push/pull tugboat simply" plugs" into the barge in more ways than one...by sliding into a "slot" designed into the end of a given barge...The tug plugs into the batteries of each barge after it slides into the slot....the tow/tugs run on large electric motors...traditional shaft drive or pod drives that detach for ease of repair. Electric motors may not need to be used very much going downstream...you are not running large diesels constantly ...just in case..for maneuvers downstream... like they do today. Power is available on demand though... there's little waste of electricity when not needed. Your favorite bio-diesel can run a large back-up generator for a reserve power source when going upstream/upwind and there was too much draw from the battery/solar array.The barges might have to be quite large to accomodate many solar panels and fairly narrow in beam...pontoon platform type barges would be best to reduce wetted surface and increase efficiency/speed...

 

You may find this of interest.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/carbon-free-stem-to-stern.php

 

Interesting where can I find the site about the barges?