The Solar Plane – a Perfect Metaphor for What is Wrong With Renewables

Watts Up With That?

Solar impulse at Brussels Airport, author Brussels Airport, Wikimedia share license Solar impulse at Brussels Airport, author Brussels Airport, Wikimedia share license

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The Solar Impulse 2 has finally completedcompleted the latest leg of its round the world flight. In engineering terms, a round the world flight using solar power is a remarkable achievement. But the difficulty of achieving this feat showcases why solar energy will never be a viable replacement for fossil fuels.

An experimental plane flying around the world without a single drop of fuel landed in California after a two-and-a-half day flight across the Pacific.

Piloted by Swiss explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Mountain View just before midnight (3 a.m. ET).

“It’s a new era. It’s not science fiction. It’s today,” Piccard told CNN from California after his successful voyage. “It exists and clean technologies can do the impossible.”

Images of the elegant solar aircraft, which has…

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