The BBC has been doing a nice job following Solar Impulse 2 on the different legs of its journey, flying around the world on nothing but solar power. The Solar Impulse project is not just about setting flying records - it's about making a statement about clean energy from the sun.
Via the BBC, the latest stopping point is in China;
Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, has completed the fifth leg of its round-the-world flight.
The vehicle, with Bertrand Piccard at the controls, touched down in Chongqing in China just after 17:30 GMT.
It had left Mandalay in Myanmar (Burma) some 20 hours previously.
The intention had been to make the briefest of stops in Chongqing before pushing on to Nanjing in the east of the country, but that strategy has been abandoned because of weather concerns.
The team will now lay over in southwest China until a good window opens up on the east coast.
The four motor electric airplane has a longer wingspan than a 747 (72 meters versus 68.5) but quite a disparity in weight (2.3 tonnes versus 300). 17,000 solar cells in the wings power the electric motors and also charge batteries to allow the plane to fly at night. The legs of the flight are highly dependent on favorable wind and weather - and the endurance of the pilot. As it is a single seater, Bertrand Piccard is sharing the flying duties with his business partner, Andre Borschberg. It's
a real challenge:
Operating through darkness will be particularly important when the men have to cross the Pacific and the Atlantic.
The slow speed of their prop-driven plane means these legs will take several days and nights of non-stop flying to complete.
Piccard and Borschberg - whoever is at the controls - will have to stay alert for nearly all of the time they are airborne.
They will be permitted only catnaps of up to 20 mins - in the same way a single-handed, round-the-world yachtsman would catch small periods of sleep.
They will also have to endure the physical discomfort of being confined in a cockpit that measures just 3.8 cubic metres in volume - not a lot bigger than a public telephone box.
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The Solar Impulse website has quite a bit more material on the plane, the trip, and the people behind it. It's an ambitious endeavour. It comes at a time when renewable energy is making an increasing contribution to powering the world. As per Fred Pearce at New Scientist...
Almost half of global investment in new electricity generation last year was in renewables, thanks to a hike in investment by developing countries, says a UN report.
Global investment in green energy rose 17 per cent, but developing countries saw a surge of 36 per cent. The big spending was on solar power in Asia, as well as on wind turbines in the North Sea.
Chinese investment – up 37 per cent at $83 billion – again beat the US. But Brazil, India and South Africa were all in the top 10 investors, while Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Kenya and Turkey all invested more than a billion dollars in green electricity in 2014.
Japan was third and, for the second year running, the UK beat Germany into fourth place, says the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report from the UN Environment Programme.
Of particular note:
In the US, the 103 gigawatts of renewable electricity generating capacity that came on stream last year equalled that provided by the country's nuclear power plants.
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A complementary report by Mark Kinver at the BBC serves to further make the point that renewable energy is not some far-off future choice; it's happening now.
Achim Steiner, Unep executive director, observed: "Once again in 2014, renewables made up nearly half of the net power capacity added worldwide.
"These climate-friendly energy technologies are now an indispensable component of the global energy mix and their importance will only increase as markets mature, technology prices continue to fall and the need to rein in carbon emissions becomes ever more important."
China was by fair the biggest investor, pumping a record US$83.3bn into the sector - up by more than a third on its 2013 financing.
The US was second, investing US$38.3bn. Japan was a close third with US$35.7bn.
Mr Usher told BBC News that innovation in the sector was being recorded around the globe, in developing nations as well as in the industrialised world.
In light of the flight of Solar Impulse, the increasing use of renewable energy around the world, and the
U.S. Climate Pledge, there is no excuse for continuing to use fossil fuels one second longer than absolutely necessary.