Airships powered by solar energy could be a sustainable and convenient alternative to traveling by plane in the future. According to heise, researchers at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the TU Munich have calculated in a simulation that this type of travel is quite conceivable and offers great potential for the future. “If we rely on solar-powered airships, we can make aviation more climate-friendly pretty quickly,” says Christoph Pflaum, Professor of Computer Science at FAU.
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Researchers use Hindenburg as a template
For their study, the researchers examined a famous – albeit tragic – historical example: the LZ 129, better known as the Hindenburg. This airship, which crashed disastrously in 1937, was a prime example of the comfort of this form of travel. It was basically a floating hotel with a dining room. The research team based their analysis on the dimensions of the Hindenburg.
Like the Hindenburg, current airships are usually still powered by fossil fuels. So far, they have mainly been used for research purposes, for example for measurements in the atmosphere. The airship Pflaum is researching is larger and uses solar energy. It has what it takes to be a “real game changer” as a climate-friendly means of transport in aviation. Simulations that the team from Nuremberg and Munich recently published in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy should prove this.
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The airships are powered by solar cells
The virtual airship is about the size of the Hindenburg and is covered with flexible thin-film solar cells. At 108 tons, it is around ten tons lighter than the historical model, which according to the study can be achieved primarily with modern lightweight materials. The weight of the 13,000 square meter solar cells made of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), efficiency 17.6 percent, and the lithium-ion battery is already offset.
Helium gas and a set of four propeller motors with diameters of a good six and a half meters are to provide the buoyancy. The payload is said to be 60 tons. The tragic fate of the Hindenburg should not overtake the solar airship, because the historic zeppelin used highly combustible hydrogen gas as an emergency solution. This danger should not exist with helium.
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CO2 emissions only a fraction of those from airplanes
During flight, propulsion is provided solely by solar power and a battery. “The battery is needed primarily for night flights and must be charged before take-off,” says Pflaum. With the current electricity mix, this would result in CO2 emissions that, depending on the load and flight distance, amount to between almost one and a half and five percent of the amount that conventional aircraft currently emit.
In the solar-powered airship, travelers would fly in a more climate-friendly and comfortable way than in an airplane today, but also longer. “According to our calculations, a flight across the Atlantic from New York to London takes about two days and one night. In the opposite direction from London to New York three days and two nights,” explains the FAU professor. Depending on the wind direction, the cruising speed is between 100 and 200 kilometers per hour. The simulations were based on weather data from 2019.
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Solar airships currently only in theory
According to Christoph Pflaum, solar-powered airships could also compete with airplanes in terms of cost. “According to our estimates, the energy costs compared to an airplane are not even one percent. It is therefore very unlikely that airships would be more expensive than airplanes,” he believes. Even if aircraft use hydrogen as an energy source in the future, direct power generation from solar power would be even more efficient, says Pflaum. If necessary, expensive helium can be replaced by other gases or gas mixtures with the appropriate safety technology.
It should be borne in mind, however, that such airships currently only exist in theory. The computer scientist Pflaum is therefore following with excitement the development of the “Pathfinder” airships by the Californian company LTA Research, which supports Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among others. A drive with electricity from hydrogen fuel cells is planned. A first version called “Pathfinder I” is about half as long as the Hindenburg and has twelve propellers. It is said to have a top speed of 120 km/h and transport up to 40 tons of cargo. Other companies working on climate-friendly airships include Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) in the UK and Flying Whales in France.
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Technology conference in September
How to proceed with the climate-friendly airships will be the subject of an international conference on the subject, to which Christoph Pflaum is inviting at the end of September. Until then, his team wants to refine the simulations. It is still unclear, for example, how exactly it affects the solar power harvest when clouds scatter the sunlight. What is also still in the stars is the financing of further projects in Germany. “Unlike other research, the development of climate-friendly solar airships has hardly received any funding in this country. That’s a real problem,” said the scientist. He hopes that the chances will still be seen and used.