Solvay products and technologies to power world solar flight in 2015
Brussels, September 25 2014 --- Solvay is excited that the first world flight of the solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse 2 (Si2), which will carry Solvay’s cutting-edge products aboard, will begin in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, in March next year.
The announcement of the host city for Si2’s “First Round-The-World Solar Flight” was made in New York, at the United Arab Emirates reception held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Solvay’s light-weight, high-strength plastics, films, fibers, lubricants and coatings will help Si2 to achieve new milestones for energy efficiency and material science. Fourteen Solvay products are found in more than 6,000 components of Si2. Although these applications are new, the products are already used in countless industrial, commercial and consumer applications.
After Abu Dhabi and flying day and night on solar energy only, the plane is expected to make stopovers in Asia, the United States and in Southern Europe or in North Africa, before returning to Abu Dhabi in July 2015. The “First Round-The-World Solar Flight” is set to take 25 flying days in 4 to 5 months.
Solvay became the first Main Partner of the Solar Impulse project in 2004. It has since manufactured products and provided technical expertise in materials science that helped the first Solar Impulse plane to successfully achieve its return flight from Switzerland to Morocco in 2012 and its “Across America” flight in 2013 without spending a single fuel drop. The Si2, an upgraded version that has pushed Solvay’s boundaries of innovation, technical expertise and entrepreneurship, is now getting ready for the first tour around the world, showing people everywhere the potential of clean technologies.
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