The president of the Solar Impulse Foundation, Bertrand Piccard, describes Spain as a "pioneer in renewable energies" and maintains, in an interview with EFE, that the development of the energy transition will "easily" allow it to produce liquid hydrogen, a gas that is the protagonist of the Swiss explorer and aeronaut's next project, the Climate Impulse aircraft.

 

Piccard assures that what Spain has done in terms of wind and solar energy "is wonderful, admirable" and maintains that, "with the renewable energy capacity it has, it can easily produce liquid hydrogen, that is undoubted".

 

The explorer is a promoter of clean energy and sustainability with the Solar Impulse Foundation and, in addition, for four years he has been working with a team of experts in the manufacture of the Climate Impulse aircraft, which will be powered by hydrogen, with which he plans to make the first circumnavigation of the world with an aircraft of this type in 2030.

 

Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist by profession, comes from a family of pioneers: his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first to fly into the stratosphere (16,000 meters high) and invented the bathyscaphe with his son, Jacques Piccard, who was the first to dive into the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 11,000 meters. the deepest part of the ocean.

 

Last June, Piccard officially presented the Climate Impulse model at the VivaTech 2026 Fair in Paris, a project that, he explains, has the funding of entities from several countries and that will obtain the "political sponsorship" (not financial) of the European Commission (EC) in recognition of the decarbonization initiative.

 

In his opinion, "hydrogen is important for Europe's sovereignty and competitiveness" and, therefore, he indicates, Climate Impulse has joined the Sasha Coalition - a group of 28 European synthetic fuels and electric/hybrid aviation start-ups - to ask the EC that the European Union allocate funds from the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) to the promotion of hydrogen.

 

He points out that the political sponsorship of Climate Impulse comes precisely at a time when the European Commission is discussing the abolition of the exemption on international flights from the ETS, the system that limits greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from large industries.

 

In this context, several countries, including Spain, together with Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg, have asked the EC not to lower the ambitions of the ETS in order to move towards a decarbonised economy.

 

In Piccard's opinion, expanding the ETS "would force aviation companies to bet on a cleaner fuel such as hydrogen and would help construction companies such as Airbus and Boeing to manufacture more efficient aircraft, as well as reduce fuel waste at airports".

 

Because, he says, "the ecosystem of this fuel consists of producing liquid hydrogen with renewable energy, storing it in a supply depot at an airport, transferring the hydrogen to an aircraft and having it fly without emitting carbon".

 

 

 

 

Cheaper plane tickets than train tickets

 

He recalls that currently air transport consumers pay for tickets "cheaper than train tickets", something that "is not normal because flights pollute and produce CO2 and passengers are not paying for it", when "it would be normal for them to pay in their tickets for the emissions and pollution generated on a flight".

In addition, it would be a way of "incentivizing" airlines to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, a reduction that would also be reflected in cheaper tickets, he says, which "would mean having more economically profitable companies."

 

Hydrogen for industrial processes

 

He stresses that hydrogen production could be achieved with the storage and use of energy that "is not consumed at night from solar, wind and, perhaps, even nuclear energy".

 

"Green, clean and decarbonised hydrogen is not only suitable for heavy transport", but "also for industry, such as steel, which needs a lot of heat", he explains, and maintains that "hydrogen is a good way to obtain that heat; In addition, it is necessary for the fertilizer industry."

 

It's a gas, he adds, that has been used for a long time — the 1960s Gemini space program in the United States used liquid hydrogen for spacecraft and fuel cells — but, he laments, "we haven't learned our lesson."

 

Piccard is convinced of "decarbonisation to curb global warming" and that the "energy transition is possible" thanks to the potential of the "clean solutions and technology" that exist, which he intends to demonstrad hydrogen to achieve "cleaner" air transport.

 

In his opinion, "it is very important to show that we can do better than what we actually do today."

 

"It is also a sign of hope for young people, who are very discouraged and believe that there is no solution or future," but "that is not true," he maintains.

 

Source:   Fuel Cells Works