Transport Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen and Dag Falk-Petersen, head of state-run Avinor which runs most of Norway’s airports, took a few minutes’ flight around Oslo airport in an Alpha Electro G2 plane, built by Pipistrel in Slovenia.
“This is ... a first example that we are moving fast forward” toward greener aviation, Solvik-Olsen told Reuters. “We do have to make sure it is safe - people won’t fly if they don’t trust it.”
He said plane makers such as Boeing and Airbus were developing electric aircraft and that battery prices were tumbling, making it feasible to reach a government goal of making all domestic flights in Norway electric by 2040.
Asked when passenger flights in electric planes could start, Falk-Petersen, the pilot, said: “My best guess is before 2025 ... It should all be electrified by 2040.”
The two said the plane, with a takeoff weight of 570 kg (1255 lb), was cramped and buffeted by winds but far quieter than a conventional plane run on fossil fuels.
Norway tops the world league for per capita sales of electric cars such as Teslas, Nissan Leafs, or Volkswagen Golfs, backed by incentives such as big tax breaks, free parking and exemptions from road tolls.
In May 2018, 56 percent of all cars sold in Norway were either pure electric or hybrids against 46 percent in the same month of 2017, according to official statistics.
Norway, a mountainous country of five million people where fjords and remote islands mean many short-hop routes of less than 200 kms, would be ideal for electric planes, Solvik-Olsen said. Also, 98 percent of electricity in Norway is generated from clean hydro power.
Read more at Norway Tests Tiny Electric Plane, Sees Passenger Flights by 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment