Keeping the air clean

01 April 2015
Rohit Panchal
Business India

Normally when an aircraft gets airborne, its speed continues to increase. However, Solar Impulse 2, the experimental aircraft that flies on the electricity stored in its batteries, slows down once it gets airborne, to conserve energy. The electricity is generated from the 17,250 photo-voltaic cells fitted on its 72 metre-long wings. This fact makes Solar Impulse 2 the only plane in the world that uses clean energy as fuel, without emitting harmful pollutants.

The aircraft is on a round-the-world trip to spread the message of clean energy and ensure that the future can stay clean. It landed in Ahmedabad on 10 March and left for Varanasi on 18 March. This flight is perhaps the most prominent event in the history of aviation since the advent of Wright brothers and has the potential to change the future of aviation.

Experimental aircrafts normally fly on deserts but Andre Borschberg, co-founder &CEO, Solar Impulse, says he wanted to fly to major airports, to make sure that the aircraft is extremely reliable. Borschberg has made the plane with design, technical and private financial support from over 90 industrial partners. An engineer by profession and a graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in management science, Borschberg is a trained fighter pilot, as also a professional airplane and helicopter pilot. He flew in from Abu Dhabi, the point of origin of the trip, to its first stop in Muscat, Oman. "There are always challenges in flying an experimental plane," says Borschberg. "Our's carry a message about promoting cleaner technology."

The other pilot, Bertrand Piccard, flew the plane from Muscat to Ahmadabad, in a 13 hour flight. Piccard, a doctor, psychiatrist, explorer and aeronaut, all in one, had earlier made the first ever non-stop around-the-world balloon flight. He is the founder &chairman, Solar Impulse.

"Solar Impulse is not business; it's a life project," says Piccard. An amount of €140 million, largely received as financial support from partner companies, has been spent on the research &development and making of the plane Solar Impulse 2 so far.

Aditya Birla group, which hosted the plane when it landed in Ahmedabad after completing the second leg of its 12-stop 35,000 km journey around the world, is the only Indian company associated with the project. The plane is expected to cover the distance in 25 days of flying, spread over five months. Solar Impulse is powered by four electric engines, producing 17.5 hp each. "Our 700 telecom towers run on either hydro or solar power," says Tony Henshaw, chief sustainability officer, Aditya Birla group. "It's a far change from the telecom industry, which uses 2.5 billion litres of diesel in a year."

Non polluting
According to reports, aviation contributes to an estimated 5 per cent of global pollution. Airplanes emit harmful pollutants such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphate and particulate matter, directly into the atmosphere, which amplifies the impact of aviation on global warming. Therefore, in an attempt to make sure that the Solar Impulse project doesn't just remain a project, but becomes a movement which can bring measurable results, the pilots intend to interact with government authorities, schools, press and universities, to reach out to them at every stop the aircraft makes and persuade them to use clean energy. It has also launched a Website: Futureisclean.com, wherein people who want a cleaner future can join indirectly and put pressure on governments and authorities to produce and use clean energy.

Earlier, the pilot duo had built Solar Impulse 1, which was flown first across Switzerland (the home country of both the pilots), in 2010, then in Europe in 2011, crossing the Mediterranean sea in 2012 and across America in 2013. In total, Solar Impulse 1 travelled 6,503 km and was put on display in The City of Science in Paris in March 2014. Then, on 9 April 2014, Solar Impulse 2 was presented to the world.