Maybe you’ve seen the headline: On June 6, a solar-powered plane flew 20 hours from Switzerland to Morocco, a country in Northwestern Africa. It marked the first international flight for such an aircraft, again proved nighttime flight is possible and was a rehearsal for an upcoming around-the-world journey. On the tarmac, the pilot told a crowd of reporters, “We came here out of admiration for Morocco’s
pioneering solar energy program.”
That program, according to the Associated Press, is rather ambitious: The sun-laden country plans to derive 40% of its power from the sun by 2020. The country wants to squelch its reliance on foreign oil. To help reach that goal, Morocco will build a 10-square-mile solar power plant in the Southern city of Ouarzazate. It’s expected to contribute 500-MW by 2015.
A great idea, but the project suffers from growing pains. The AP reports that the cost for the Ouarzazate plant has grown to $1.25 billion, up from $440 million. And to make their renewable energy dream a reality, the government is increasing subsidies for solar while reducing them for gas, which has lead to higher gas and food prices – and a frustrated public. As one Moroccan says:
“Zucchini and carrots have already gone up 20 percent. I hope they stay there because they are already too expensive … We are at our end.”
While the pros and cons of Morocco’s solar project can be debated, few can uncover a negative side to Solar Impluse, the name for a plane that’s as big as an Airbus A380, yet weighs-in like a car. It’s topped with 12,000 solar cells. Perhaps the plane’s pilot, adventurer Bertrand Piccard, explained its purpose best in an Australian news outlet:
“The question is not to use solar power for normal airplanes,” Mr Piccard said. “The question is more to demonstrate that we can achieve incredible goals, almost impossible goals, with new technologies, without fuel, just with solar energy, and raise awareness that if we can do it in the air, of course everybody can do it on the ground.”
The Solar Impluse project, with a $100 million price tag, started in 2003. Below, a video of its historic landing in Morocco.
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