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?
First a proviso, while I've a better physics education then most, it's FAR from focused on this area. Take my ideas as the ramblings of an educated layman.
Shape wise, it will likely be best a cross between a bullet and a wing. You want it to present a blade-like cross section to the front for cutting through the air, with a trailing tail to reduce drag turbulence. You also want to limit the side cross section to limit wind sheer effects, though this is less critical. The end result is an inflated flying wing shape. This also gives a large area on the top for solar panels.
The airship will also need propulsion. 3 ideas spring to mind. Ducted fans would potentially work well for forward thrust. (Think finger jet engine arrangement). For maneuvering, you'll want pods of some description. Vector thrust options mirrored around the centerline. These could be ducted pods, like those used to maneuver cargo ships, or more quadcopter like, with larger exposed fans. Aerodynamics will be a big limit however. They will either need to be part of the main thrust generation, in flight, or fold out of the air stream.
As for a depot etc, I suspect it will be closer to a ship unloading dock. The main docks will have the airship latched down to the ground, for efficient loading and unloading. Outside that, they will likely want to tether. This lets them turn into the wind. Think something like this: Random image I found Not the prettiest site, but practical. Enough room to avoid collisions, but otherwise anchored. Airships would require some sort of mooring pole, so it would likely be more regular in arrangement.
This is awesome, thank you!