ABB and Solar Impulse get ready for historic round-the-world flight

ABB will accompany Solar Impulse and its crew on the aircraft’s flight around the world powered only by energy from the sun. It will begin its historic flight between late February and early March 2015 from Abu Dhabi.

“Solar Impulse will inspire a new generation to embrace innovation and technology to solve the planet’s biggest challenges,” says ABB CEO, Ulrich Spiesshofer. “ABB will be with the Solar Impulse team every mile of its journey.”

Three ABB engineers have joined the Solar Impulse team where they will assist in improving control systems for ground operations, enhancing the charging electronics for the aircraft’s battery systems and resolving obstacles that emerge along the route.

On the 40,000km route, pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg will share duties as the aircraft stops in cities, including Muscat, Oman; Varanasi and Ahmedabad in India; Chongqing and Nanjing in China; and Phoenix, Arizona in the U.S. It will also stop in Europe or North Africa.

Among challenges before the mission concludes in Abu Dhabi in mid-2015 will be a non-stop flight of five days and nights from China to Hawaii. Powered by 17,248 solar cells, Solar Impulse will soar higher than Mount Everest each day while fully charging its batteries to stay aloft during the night.

As the world’s second-largest supplier of solar inverters and one of the largest suppliers to the wind-power industry, ABB is a leader in integrating renewables efficiently and reliably into power grids. ABB is helping build the most-comprehensive electric vehicle fast-charging network in Europe and is supplying key equipment for the world’s largest network of fast chargers for electric cars in China. 

Piccard welcomes the addition of ABB to Solar Impulse’s team. “This is what the world needs,” says the Swiss aviation pioneer who was part of the first team to circle the earth in a balloon in 1999. “Otherwise, we’re going to waste all our natural resources.”

Since 2010, Piccard, the project’s chairman, and Borschberg, its chief executive officer, have combined to set eight international aviation records including those for duration, altitude and distance flown as they crossed Europe, North Africa and the United States in a prototype aircraft powered only by the sun. 

For more information about ABB’s alliance with Solar Impulse, click here.
 
For more information on Solar Impulse, click here.