Massachusetts startup floats a versatile new solar boat

The TruSolar20, all straight lines and right angles, was not the sleekest vessel on the Charles River when I visited at the end of August. Once I climbed aboard with inventor James Worden and we pulled away from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s sailing pavilion, it quickly became clear that the boat’s shape isn’t its only distinction.

There was no exhaust pricking our lungs as we sped up, and the only noises were the breeze and the strains of the ​“Pirates of the Caribbean” soundtrack, a favorite of Worden’s, coming from the onboard speakers. Most notable, perhaps, was the canopy over our heads, composed of six 425-watt solar panels that provided all the power the 20-foot-long boat needed to cruise along at about five miles per hour, even on a mostly cloudy day.

In sunnier weather, the boat reaches eight miles per hour on sun power alone and can run indefinitely at that rate. If it taps into the power stored in its battery, it can get close to 14 miles per hour. After sunset, a full battery keeps the vessel moving at a slower speed all night.

“We are sure that when people experience this, they’ll be really excited about it,” Worden said, steering the boat back toward MIT, his alma mater. 

He’s banking on it, in fact. The TruSolar20 is the first design by Worden’s solar boat startup, Worden Marine. The prototype, named Anita in honor of Worden’s wife and partner in innovation, who died in 2023, first hit the water in 2024. A second model, the TruSolar40, is twice as long, half again as wide, and topped with 12 solar panels. This larger version will be enclosed, unlike its younger sibling, and the ends have been made more streamlined, reducing the boxiness of the original. Both boats can be built customized for ferry routes, river tours, and other recreational or small commercial uses.

Worden is an innovator and entrepreneur with a long history in solar-powered vehicles, dating to the mid-1980s, when he won the Massachusetts state science fair by building a wood-and-cardboard solar-powered go-kart. A few years later, at MIT, he helped start the school’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team, then went on to found solar EV company Solectria with Anita. Later, the pair spun out Solectria Renewables, a company specializing in photovoltaic inverters.

The company was acquired in 2014, and Worden stayed on as co-CEO until 2017. Soon afterward, he began mulling the possibilities of sun-powered boating and started planning in earnest about four years ago, he said. His priority was always to design a zero-emissions boat from the ground up, rather than adapting existing vessels to work with solar power.

“That’s when I went down into the basement and really started sketching and researching,” he said.

Environmental impact is not an afterthought for Worden. He still drives a 1994 Solectria electric car, and Worden Marine is headquartered in a net-positive, geothermally heated renovated barn in North Andover, Massachusetts.