Solar-powered plane sets record by flying all night

“When you took off it was another era. You land in a new era where people understand that with renewable energy you can do impossible things.”

Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard to pilot André Borschberg

At 9 AM this morning Swiss time, the Solar Impulse airplane entered the record books by landing — after 26 hours aloft powered only by the sun.

The flight was the culmination of a seven-year long effort by a team of 150 engineers, scientists and other experts, led by project co-founder Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss aviator who made the first non-stop, round-the-world journey in a hot air balloon in 1999.

Solar Impulse pilot Andre Borschberg

The Solar Impulse has the wingspan of a jumbo jet (63.4 meters, 208 feet) but weighs about the same as a Honda Accord (1,600 kg, 3527 lbs). The $88 million project has been funded by mostly-Swiss partners and public donations.

After completing the flight over the Jura mountains and Lake Neuchâtel, Swiss pilot André Borschberg described his “extraordinary night” to reporters.

“Just sitting there and watching the battery charge level rise and rise thanks to the sun,” he said, “and then that suspense, not knowing whether we were going to manage to stay up in the air the whole night. And finally the joy of seeing the sun rise and feeling the energy beginning to circulate in the solar panels again. I have just flown more than 26 hours without using a drop of fuel and without causing any pollution.”

Revolutions in solar and battery technology

Piccard credited recent improvements in solar power technology for the successful flight.

Solar cell "skin"

“Compared with 2003, energy efficiency has increased from 16 to 22 percent,” said Piccard. “And the cells are now half as thick.”

The ultra-thin solar cells — only 150 microns thick — were developed by leading solar manufacturer SunPower and scientists at Neuchâtel University. The long wings of the Solar Impulse are covered with a skin of 11,000 silicon solar cells.

Swiss chemical giant Solvay worked with South Korean-based Kokam to produce a new lithium polymer battery with an energy density nearly double the previous form. The lighter batteries combined with the lighter solar cells and newly designed ultra-light motors to allow Solar Impulse to generate sufficient electricity during the day to fly and still have enough stored energy to stay aloft during the night.

The solar-powered plane flew at an average speed of 25 mph and climbed to an altitude of 28,000 feet.

Piccard and his team are set to begin work on a new plane. This version will need several improvements to achieve the team’s next goal: flying around the world in five days — broken up into five stages.

The most recent post in the team’s blog celebrates this morning’s event and concludes with these instructions for readers: “You all go off and pick a sunflower, plant it in your yard, and keep the spirit alive. Till the next, fabulous step toward a greener, more sustainable world. Cheers.”

For more on Solar Impulse, see the video below and visit the Solar Impulse website.

Energy Independence Day, July 3, 2010

With the economy and job-growth stagnant, oil still spewing from the BP well-head into the Gulf of Mexico as a toxic reminder of our addiction to fossil fuels, President Obama couldn’t have picked a better time to announce a major solar power initiative than today, July 3rd — only hours away from Independence Day.

The president labeled his weekly radio address “A Solar Recovery,” reflecting the emphasis on pocket-book voting in this election year. Personally, I wish Obama would have gone with “Energy Independence Day,” putting the spotlight on the larger, long-term prize. But I guess that explains why I’m a journalist and he’s The President of the United States of America.

“We’re accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power…” the president said and then announced a new commitment to solar power of $2 billion.

Solana Solar Generating Station

The bulk of the money will be used to build the world’s largest solar power plant, a 280-MW station in southwestern Arizona. The Solana generating plant, said Obama, “will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use — even at night.”

Solana (Spanish for “sunny place”) will be built and operated by Abengoa, headquartered in Seville, Spain. The plant will use concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, which uses heat generated by sunlight to produce electricity. Most Americans are more familiar with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels used mostly on rooftops to generate electricity.

Electricity generated by Solana will be purchased by Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility, and used to supply electric power to an estimated 70,000 homes.

“This is very encouraging news,” Pat Dinkel, VP for power marketing and resource planning at APS, told The Sun today. “We know there are a lot of steps remaining before our customers can benefit from Solana’s generation but this action brings that goal a step closer.”

Abengoa’s Fred Morse thanked Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Tucson), a leading solar advocate in Washington.

“Congresswoman Giffords played an instrumental role to make this project a reality,” said Morse. “She understands the importance of creating jobs in Arizona and the ripple effects that this project will create throughout the Arizona economy. Solana will bring Arizona one step closer to becoming the solar capital of the nation.”

The Solana project has been in the works for at least three years. With the federal loan guarantee, construction on the plant may begin yet this year.

Secretary Chu: U.S. leadership in the global green economy

Abound Solar's PV Panel

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu touted the second part of today’s announcement — $400 million to Abound Solar Manufacturing to produce a new form of PV cells. Plants in Longmont, Colorado, and Tipton, Indiana will manufacture Cadmium-Telluride panels, a technology developed at Colorado State University, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Science Foundation.

The Indiana plant was originally built for a Chrysler auto parts supplier, but because of the recession, it had never been occupied. By 2013, Abound hopes to be manufacturing 840 MW worth of solar panels a year at the two plants.

“By supporting new cutting-edge solar manufacturing technologies,” said Chu, “we are advancing a diverse renewable energy portfolio while helping to position the U.S. at the forefront of the global green economy.”

Jobs for Arizona & New Mexico, too

The Solana plant will need nearly a million specially-made mirrors to reflect and concentrate the Arizona sunlight, and miles of tubing to carry the super-heated liquid used in the CSP process. A mirror factory is planned for the Phoenix area, and the tubes will come from neighboring New Mexico, where a factory owned by Schott Solar is currently operating well-below capacity.

Solana Solar Generating Station

The Solana plant will cover 3,000 acres of former farmland. While CSP that uses water for cooling is controversial, especially in the desert, the power plant will use less water than the farm that had been at the same location. According to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords office, Solana will use slightly more than 10 percent of the water drawn by the farm.

Solana generates electricity without producing greenhouse gasses — eliminating an estimated 470,000 tons of GHG a year.

Some 3,200 giant parabolic collectors will track the sun throughout the day at Solana. Each collector is 25-feet wide, 20-feet high and the length of 1.5 football fields. Some of the heat generated by the collectors will be stored as molten salt, allowing the plant to generate electricity for six hours after sunset.

• Watch the video of the President’s address
• Solana on the APS Website
• Representative Gabrielle Giffords
• Abound Solar
• Abengoa white paper on trough technology (pdf)

Bamboo solar house, Tongji (China) Team entry

“Today is an important day for our country,” said Spain’s Minister of Housing, Beatriz Corredor at the opening of the Solar Decathlon Europe, “because [it] offers us the opportunity to show that Spain is at the head of research in the area of renewable energies and their application to residential construction.”

Spain's Minister of Housing, Beatriz Corredor

Spain has earned bragging rights in the advancement of solar power, but Solar Decathletes from twelve of the seventeen competing university teams that do not come from Spain hope to beat their host country with a superior all-solar-powered house.

To read more about the 10-day competition, visit the Solar Decathlon Europe Website.

You can follow the tweets from all of the teams, or choose your favorite, at our Solar Decathlon Europe Twitter list.

This video provides a brief overview of Solar Decathlon Europe’s opening (in Spanish).

Competing Teams

Arts et Métiers Paris Tech
Fachhochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera
Ecole National Supérieure d’architecture de Grenoble
Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences
Aalto University, Finland
Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluña
University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim
Tianjin University
Universidad de Sevilla
Universidad de Valladolid
University of Nottingham
University of Florida
Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña
Tongji University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University