Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Solar Impulse 2, an attempt to raise awareness of the environmental issues, by flying around the world the world using solar energy, has been forced to abort an attempt to fly from Japan to Hawaii due to bad weather.
According to the National Geographic;
The Solar Impulse 2, a plane attempting to fly around the world using solar power, was forced to land Monday in Nagoya, Japan due to inclement weather.
The experimental aircraft — flown and financed by Swiss businessman and pilot André Borschberg — is now two months into its quest to become the first solar-powered plane to circumnavigate the Earth.
Read more: http://time.com/3903110/solar-impulse-plane/
The Solar Impulse information page spells out its green mission:
Since the ecological movement appeared on the scene in the 1970s, an irreconcilable conflict has divided those who want to protect nature, and who call for reductions in mobility, comfort and growth, from those in business and industry who defend people’s employment and purchasing power. Today, for the first time, this cleavage can be bridged, and the answer is clean technology. At last, technologies exist which can simultaneously protect the environment in a cost-effective manner and bring profits to companies.
The problem with our society is that, despite all the grand talk about sustainable development, we are a long way from making use of the clean technologies that are already available to us. Every hour, our world consumes around a million tons of petrol, not to mention other fossil fuels, spits back out into the atmosphere enough polluting emissions to disrupt the climate, and leaves half of the population stagnating in totally unacceptable living conditions. And yet, everything could already be so different…
Read more: http://info.solarimpulse.com/en/our-story/ambassador-of-the-future/
What can I say – I admire Borschberg’s courage at attempting such a difficult feat. But his failed attempt to fly to Hawaii was surely a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with renewables. Borschberg’s plane can’t carry cargo or passengers, it can barely carry its own weight. It would have been impossible to construct without high tech petroleum based plastics. And when the weather turned against him, Borschberg’s ingenuity and courage was helpless to overcome the inherent shortcomings of renewable energy.
“two months into its quest”
Surely a boat would be faster
20 days to beat Jules Verne
Yes, obviously a sailboat could do it faster and carry passengers and cargo. This is less than useless
Will it make it “Around the World in 80 Days” ?
Since it is on leg 7a of 13. after two months from start, the 80 day mark will come and go before it gets to the USA.
Coming into Typhoon season, I’d be surprised if it leaves Japan before November.
In 2014, there were 18 Typhoons in the NW Pacific from June thru November.
It would be intersting to submit a FOI to ascerttain how much CO2 and pollution was produced in its manufature/constructure (including its batteries) taking into account the transport of all components to site.
Ditto, the team that has sat groundside along with the mission.
But one can see the money being made in all this environmental cr*p when Oil Majors (such as BP and Shell) are calling for a price to be fixed on carbon. They can make more money out of this sideline than the traditional core business. Extraordinary the way that consumers/Joe Public is being ripped off because of politians/lobbyists and big business.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/bp-calls-global-carbon-price-avoid-worst-impacts-climate-change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11644177/Shell-and-BP-call-for-international-carbon-pricing-deal.html
Exactly. They are simply getting on board the green train so they can replace coal usage with their natural gas. Follow the money.
Branson and Gore are patrons…amongst others. So it surely is cr*p therefore.
Borschberg has a history of using other peoples money to pursue “unusual” projects, (kind of like many national governments). Although you will hear about his exemplary background I know a couple bankers in Zurich who could not find a single real success story in his background.
“But his failed attempt to fly to Hawaii was surely a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with renewables. Borschberg’s plane can’t carry cargo or passengers, it can barely carry its own weight.”
The Wrights plane couldn’t do that either. We should have just given up then, and used trains and boats, which worked.
[REPLY: actually, you are quite wrong. The Wright’s plane could in fact carry a passenger, one Mr. Wright, whom as I recall piloted the plane at Kitty Hawk, NC and other demonstrations that year. And, it could fly at night and on cloudy days. The context here is what matters, the Wright plane had no peers. This solar plane has thousands of peers, and a century of aviation innovation before it, yet it still can’t carry Wilbur or Orville or Air Mail. Sorry, it’s not progress, its mostly gimmick – Anthony]
Wrong? Actually, the solar plane can carry enuf food and water to feed the pilot for a week, which actually no plane can presently do. It flies on cloudy days and at night; it’s does not do well in thunderstorms which is the reason it was grounded.
In 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeanne Yeager were airborne for more than a week on the Voyager 1. And their plane was more capable than a Piper Cub. In fact, it actually did make it around the world! 😉
They did this in a Burt Rutan built aircraft. Made of CARBON composites. Around the world, non-stop on one tank of gas. (the whole airframe was basically a fuel tank.)
Burt Rutan is a well known skeptic of CAGW and a smart dude.
Stats of the Rutan Voyager (from Wikipedia)
General characteristics
Crew: Two pilots
Length: 29 ft 2 in (8.90 m)
Wingspan: 110 ft 8 in (33.80 m)
Height: 10 ft 3 in (3.10 m)
Wing area: 363 ft2 (33.72 m2)
Empty weight: 2250 lb (1020.6 kg)
Gross weight: 9694.5 lb (4397.4 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Teledyne Continental O-240, 130 hp (100 kW)
1 × Teledyne Continental IOL-200, 110 hp (81 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 122 mph (196 km/h)
Range: 24,986 miles (42,212 km)
Endurance: 216 hours
In a week most other plane can get around the world. This plane has taken two months to get from Abu Dabai to Japan. There is no practical reason for a plane to stay aloft for a week.
“Actually, the solar plane can carry enuf food and water to feed the pilot for a week, which actually no plane can presently do.”
Ignoring your self-contradiction, I’m sure a 747 could carry enough food and water to sustain a pilot for a year – but there’s no need to.
Google is working on high altitude solar powered surveillance and communications drones which could theoretically stay aloft, way above the weather, for weeks. But even they admit it’s a roll of the dice.
Wouldn’t it be just as “green” to put the solar cells on the ground in a sunny spot to power a small plant making fuel from, say, algae, and use the fuel to power the Rutan Voyager?
The Wright flyer was the first powered plane. There has been 100 years of aeronautical advancement since then.
Even with 100 years improvement in aeronautics, electrics, solar cells, etc. this plane still can’t do what the Wright flyer did.
The only reason I see for a Solar powered plane is it could stay aloft at high altitude performing specific missions for a long time. Such a craft would be unmanned, and more controllable than a balloon. Like most most manned air and spacecraft, a huge part of the cost, technology, and weight is devoted to keeping the people inside alive.
The solution: a hybrid with a zeppelin
A Zeppelin with Helium gas and solar-voltaic panels all in the same place? Can I buy the film rights?
It would never get off the ground if I think what you are saying is right. Zeppelins were filled with hydrogen because of a helium embargo on Germany.
Helium? Isn’t that a by-product of those evil ‘fossil fuels’?
Yeah. But it is a one-way leak … Drill a gas well in a He-bearing stratum.
The He leaks out (or is used industrially), floats to the top of the atmosphere.
Floats away into space.
Presto. Zero-zero chance of recovery and re-use.
Once out of the ground, it can never be used again. (Without fusion.)
I actually have two versions, one with a resurrected Peter Sellers where it treks cross-country at an altitude of about 3 feet. The other version is with hydrogen, bit it’s a very, very, very short feature.
The LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin flew for nine years before being grounded after the loss of the LZ-129 Hindenburg:
“By the time of Graf Zeppelin’s last flight, nine years later, the ship had flown over a million miles, on 590 flights, carrying thousands of passengers and hundreds of thousands of pounds of freight and mail, with safety and speed. Graf Zeppelin circled the globe and was famous throughout the world, and inspired an international zeppelin fever in the late 1920s and early 1930s.”
http://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/history
The ship had few close calls, however, so its success may have been a matter of good luck.
Ah, such a shame. In a 100 yrs we would/could/might have been able to load it with 400 passengers and their luggage and flown round the world 6 times in a day but we will need much more money to complete the scam oops I meant science project.
You might check on the glorious fate of the last Famous Solar Plane to soar triumphantly over the Pacific:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Helios
(The Name should have been “Icarus”, but at least they picked the right myth.)
And yes, a wonderful symbol for all that is harebrained about the ecolunatic boondoggle.
I think they’re overmilking the green aspects of the project (necessary to get all the attention they crave).
I’d be happier if they just concentrated on the aviation “first” of first manned solar flight around the world and then followed that up with a first nonstop, unmanned solar flight around the world in the lower stratosphere.
… followed that up with a first nonstop, unmanned solar flight around the world in the lower stratosphere.
How are they going to that? Backwards?
Not to worry, the pilot will probably be electrocuted first.
One countries use of fossil fuels condemns other countries to live in poverty?????
What universe did these Einstein’s come from?
Just had a sponsored link pop up on my FB newsfeed enticing people to “find out how you can get solar with no upfront costs and profit straight away”. In the comment section about half were those complaining about having spent $3,000-$5000 and not seeing much difference in their power bills. Those who are home all day were more enthusiastic and appear to be able to cover the price in about 5 years. Mind you, there are still subsidies here in Oz, I believe.
There are a number of high priced homes in Park City that were built with a solar option. The solar was more in the range of 30-50K. Many of these folks have 6000 square foot homes in California, with 28 cents KWH and total electric bills of 500+ a month. It amazes them that their electric bills are below 100 bucks a month in Park City. But in Park City air conditioning is used infrequently, power is 10.5 cents kwh, and the homes are probably used less than 60 days a year. They just don’t make the comparison, so they think they’re saving 2500 a year, and will payout in 12 years. They really save about $50 a month.
Certainly in Australia, those who do not have “solar” installations, actually subsidise those that do.
Typical innit. Where’s a stinger missile when you really need one?
Pointman
No need to waste a stinger. Just cough hard in it’s general direction.
Squirrel Suits. I love those guys! Jet engine back-packs. Felix Baumbgartner jumping from outer space. All that falling with style stuff. I just love watching it and I admire the guts that it takes to do it.
None of it is practical. It is all stunt work.
I categorize this solar plane as a stunt. The technology is cool, the people are awesome.
Solar powered anything is fundamentally UNRELIABLE. So the fact that “weather” brought a halt to this publicity stunt gives we skeptics the reverse publicity of a very public solar powered failure.
So, Borschberg. Many thanks for the schadenfreude.
‘Since the ecological movement appeared … an irreconcilable conflict has divided those … Today, for the first time, this cleavage can be bridged …’
Ok, I’m a bit of a Neanderthal. But, in this case I make no apologies. I will state, for the record, that I am totally in opposition to any form of cleavage ever being bridged.
+10
I don’t get the point. Simple calculations would show how the concept is impractical.
Was this a stunt for the upcoming Paris waste?
Speaking of flying around the world……
I know this is probably somewhat OT, but I thought I’d mention it in case anyone out there is interested in following the ongoing efforts to solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator back in 1937….
http://news.yahoo.com/expedition-returns-south-pacific-crack-amelia-earhart-mystery-030135945.html.
The International Group for Historical Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is beginning its 11th expedition to the Kiribati island of Nikumaroro (a.k.a. Gardner island as the British called it) this month to search for evidence that Earhart landed on the coral reef just offshore and became marooned on the island with her navigator in 1937. Nikumaroro is about 360 south of Howland island where she was supposed to land.
In previous expeditions, TIGHAR found evidence of the existence of castaways on the island from around the time that Earhart went missing…including a woman’s shoe of the type Earhart reportedly wore and a broken bottle of skin cream of the type that Earhart reportedly used. A photo from New Zealand taken of the island’s coral reef taken in 1938 shows what appears to be a fuselage of an aircraft sticking out of the water. The island was settled by the British and native islanders in 1939, and the there are unconfirmed reports of plane pieces being found on the island when it was settled (the island is uninhabited today).
During this expedition, TIGHAR is going to (among other things) search the deep waters off the coral reef where they hope to find physical evidence of Earhart’s plane using a deep water submersible. If you want to read more and follow the expedition, the website is: http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr.html or
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Archivessubject.html.
What? No 300 passenger model coming soon?
And what the BBC would not mention, is that most of the motive force for this aviation farce is not coming from the electric motors, but from the upper jetstreams. This thing flies so slowly (50kts) it may as well be a balloon, which is why it has to fly west to east WITH the upper winds.
Put it this way, if they flew east to west they would actually fly backwards. In fact, it flies so slowly it would almost be as quick to fly backwards around the world, as forwards. The thing is an advertising billboard for the impractibility and stupidity of the Green Dream, no more no less.
Ralph
Good points about the jetstream, but the craft does make at least 32 Knots on its own.
Any international traveler can verify that there is a difference of several hours flight time WestEast depending on whether one is flying with, or into the jetstream.
Whoopee-do. At 40 kts, it would take 40 days to circumnavigate the globe in still winds.
And since the average upper jetstream is in the range of 100 kts, if this technological abortion flew east-west, it would be averaging 60 kts backwards. As I said, it is faster backwards than forwards !!
And while flying west-east some 2/3 of the energy is comming from the jetsream, and not from the solar panels and engines.
Ralph
As you pointed out, flying East to West, it would still be flying West to East, if it got tangled with the jet stream.
However, maps I’ve seen of their flight plan shows them staying out of the jetstream.
They are already on Day 86 of the journey…
http://www.solarimpulse.com/widget-rtw_wrapup
Can it fly high enough to get into the jetstream? There doesn’t appear to be any form of cabin pressurisation and for a week at jetstream height, the pilot is going to need a serious supply of oxygen.
GAWD! So they would do just as well with a balloon !?!?
Can it fly high enough to get into the jetstream?
_______________________________
They claim 39,000 ft, so yes. And in aviation you are normally allowed to go to 40,000 ft before you need pressure breathing equipment, so I suppose it is possible. But they would need one heleva oxygen bottle to remain at that altitude for several days.
Don’t know if this thing can fly high enough to make it into the jet stream.
I suspect that the turbulence surrounding the jet stream would be more than this thing could handle anyway.
Let him try it non-stop. Hey, if he get close enough to the sun he can do it.
==========
All part of the Banzai charge to Paris.
They of course use commercial electricity to plug in the batteries for a full charge before takeoff, and land at night with near depleted batteries.
According to their website, they fly to maximum altitude and charge the batteries during the day and slowly descend on battery power during the night. There are graphs which have tracked their progress and daily altitude changes.
It’s been fun watching their progress, but requires effort to overlook the constant “save the planet” BS. That’s the price of website admission…
I watched the pilot turn South over the Sea of Japan and figured he was heading for Nagoya. Are they merely waiting out the storm? That’s not a failure…
IMHO, the weight of their constant preachy BS hampers their efforts.
This was pointed out over at Bishop Hill’s. It’s hilariously “Green”.
Trees!
The enemies of using the Sun to reduce atmospheric CO2.
Doh, I meant.
This was pointed out over at Bishop Hill’s. It’s hilariously “Green”.
Trees!
The enemies of using the Sun to reduce atmospheric CO2.
I believe the top speed for the Solar Impulse 2 is 50 mph. So if it gets into a wind greater than 50 mph then it’s going where ever the wind blows it. Not very practical especially if you’re try to get to an island in the Pacific.