Solar Impulse on Round the World Flight - by Sun!

After 13 years of planning, the Solar Impulse SI2 took off from Al-Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi at 7:12 a.m. local time a day ago. 

This initiated the first leg of its historic attempt to be the first solar-powered airplane to fly around the world. If all goes well, the plane will return to Al-Bateen in June or July. As reported in January, the first leg was a short 12-hour “shakedown cruise” to Muscat, Oman, piloted by Andre Borschberg. 

The plane landed safely in Muscat, more or less on schedule.

Of the two pilots who will take turns behind the wheel, Borschberg is the engineer and former fighter pilot who is intimately familiar with every detail of the plane’s design and construction.

This is a flight that representatives of the aviation industry, when approached, said couldn’t be done, at least not to their standards of safety.

Of course, it should be understood that commercial aviation operates with a high margin of safety. This flight has many known risks that would not be acceptable to commercial flyers. That is why these two men, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, are pioneers, risking their lives for a principle that they believe in. That principle is, in essence, we can do it without fossil fuels.

There have been plenty of images on tv in Australia, with no doubt, more to come.

Early stages are relatively short, but there is one to Hawaii which is a 5 day - yes 5 day - leg across the Pacific.  That will be interesting, and yes it flies non stop over that period including at night!!

Solar Inpulse in flight

partially sourced from ENN.

Solar Car Race - Global Green Challenge Part 2

The solar car race is different to the "conventional" car event. In this race, the vehicles run all day - 0830 - 1800hrs, and essentially stop by the side of the road, to go on the next day.


Previous winners of the event have AVERAGED 100km/hr plus.........yes, that is correct, over 60mph.


The vehicles are built for speed, not comfort and most certainly do not have much in terms of driver comforts - most are closed for aerodynamic efficiency, and a lot of water is consumed by the drivers in the approx 40C temperatures out on the road.


Winners are expected to take about 3-4 days to reach Adelaide, about 3300 kms from Darwin.






See http://www.globalgreenchallenge.com.au/ for more details.

More current photos here - http://photos.globalgreenchallenge.com.au/


The photos are of two overseas entries - from MIT in the US and Cambridge University

Global Green Challenge 2009 Part 1

Global Green Challenge 2009 Darwin to Adelaide

This event began today at 1230 Darwin time.

Today the street legal vehicles departed. These are alternate energy vehicles, and range from a converted “postie bike” [a 110cc Honda] running on ethanol to a Tesla Roadster all electric plug in vehicle which is an advanced sports car.

The Tesla received a lot of attention……….and deserved. It is a beautiful vehicle. But it still has to complete the 3300kms to Adelaide, and like all the electric vehicles range will be an issue.

They are prepositioning generator trucks to compensate for no refuelling depots for the electric vehicles.

There are also some very efficient diesel cars including the new Mini-D, as well as a Suzuki Alto. Even a petrol Holden V8, and they hope to achieve better than 9L/100kms, by being light on the accelerator.

There are more photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfie999/4039230810/

And detailed information at www.globalgreenchallenge.com.au . There is also a blog run by the owner of the Tesla Roadster, which is a real story in itself. See
www.internode.on.net and go to the Internode blog which focuses on the Global Green Challenge blog [around 21 – 28 October 2009].

Tomorrow the solar powered vehicles leave. They come in all shapes and sizes………more then.

Solar Power for Alice Springs

It is a small step, but it looks as if it will happen.

Alice Springs is to have a modest sized solar power station. The NT government has dressed it up as providing 1800 MW hours of energy per year, but in reality that is but 5MW per day, and not the instant rating more commonly seen when one speaks of a power station, eg 200MW for a conventional power station.

It is very modest..........but a significant step.

The local energy authority has been quite reluctant to move towards alternative or green power, so this seems a positive move.

Full details here: [more spin from Government] http://www.projectlink.com.au/IndustryNews/4015.html

For a city in the centre of Australia with a low rainfall and plenty of sunshine, solar power does seem a natural. Worley Parsons a large engineering company has proposed building a series of large solar thermal power stations for mining projects in remote areas. It is a well thought through concept, and the first one is planned for 2009/2010.

By the way, a solar photovoltaic system is currently being installed on the CrownePlaza Hotel in Alice Springs, and will provide about 85% of all power for the hotel.

Let the sun shine on the Alice!