WONDERS OF SOLAR
WONDERS OF SOLAR
Electric Passenger Planes To Operate Within Next 10 Years : Solar Impulse Founder
The co-founder of a project , which saw a solar-powered aircraft complete the first fuel-free flight around the world , this year expects electric passenger planes to operate in just under 10 years .
B ertrand Piccard , who along with fellow pilot Andre Borschberg founded Solar Impulse , also shrugged off concerns that U . S . President-elect Donald Trump ’ s appointment of a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official could hamper global clean technology efforts . Since completing their historic fuel-free flight in July , Piccard and Borschberg have been working on projects to show how the technologies used in their plane can be used in other applications .
They were especially interested in how the technology could be used to develop small electric planes with a flying time of about 1.5 hours . The two plan to announce their next project early next year , Borschberg said .
Mr . Bertrand Piccard
“ In 9 years and 8 months , you ’ ll have 50 people travelling short-haul on electric planes ,” Piccard , founder and chairman of Solar Impulse told an IATA airlines association briefing in Geneva . Why 9 years and eight months ? Because since four months , I ’ ve been saying it will be ’ 10 years ’. It will happen , he added . He said that it didn ’ t matter what people thought about climate change because clean technology was getting cheaper and would help to drive growth . He cited examples of insulation making homes cheaper to live in , of LED lights reducing lighting costs . Five years ago everything that was clean tech was more expensive – that is not the case today . If the aim is to be profitable and create jobs , then coal is out of business ,”
Source : reuters www
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Andre Borschberg
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