The catamaran skimming over the waves off the Essex coast looks like something a particularly enthusiastic sailor might race at weekends. But this cutting-edge carbon-fibre sailboat, whose wing-like hydrofoils lift it above the water, is, potentially, the future of green energy.
A little over a week ago it became the first boat in the world to produce hydrogen out at sea using just the power of the wind.
Racing along at speeds of up to 25 knots (just under 30mph) spins a propeller beneath the waves, which in turn drives a turbine and produces electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The vessel in action
On an overcast day off Brightlingsea, a two-hour test run filled a six-litre storage tank with clean, green hydrogen; the only by-product was
