To start the new year off, we here at PosiGen are going to be featuring a different piece about solar each week. It could be a person, location, or event.
Starting in 2015, a team of two Swiss men came together to embark on a project seeking to achieve flight using solar power. Andre Borschberg, a businessman and engineer, and Bertrand Piccand, one of the first balloonists to circle the earth, joined forces to create Solar Impulse.
Single-seater and powered by PV cells, these planes are designed to bring awareness to the endless possibilities of clean tech. The first plane, Solar Impulse 1, could take off under its own power and remain airborne for 36 hours.
Solar Impulse 1 completed its initial flight in December of 2009. Since then, Piccard and Borschberg have developed Solar Impulse 2 which completed circumnavigating the planet and landed in Abu Dhabi in July of 2016.
These planes prove long term flight with solar powered planes is not the stuff of science-fiction. Hopefully in the future, the technology can be included in commercial and cargo applications.
To find out more about PosiGen and our mission to provide #solarforall visit our website at www.PosiGen.com.
“Solar Impulse.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse.
