Rabat – Morocco is a visionary country in terms of renewable energies, said Bertrand Piccard co-pilot and founder of Solar Impulse, the world’s first aircraft powered entirely by the sun to make an intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco via Spain.
In an interview with MAP, Piccard highlighted the forward-looking project launched by Morocco to produce electricity from solar power with a view of satisfying 42% of its energy needs from renewable energies by 2020.
The Swiss co-pilot of Solar Impulse, which landed last Tuesday in Rabat’s airport , said that Morocco’s 3,000 hours of sunlight per year represents a great potential for developing solar power, noting that the Kingdom can also build on wind energy in other areas.
He also underscored that extracting biogas from waste will help protect the environment, adding that the success of Solar Impulse sends strong message about the need to promote environment-friendly innovation in the field of aviation.
Solar Impulse HB-SIA is the first aircraft that can fly day and night without fuel or polluting emissions. It demonstrates the huge potential of new technologies in terms of energy reduction and the production of renewable energy.
This revolutionary carbon fiber aircraft, that has the wingspan of an Airbus A340 (63.4m) and the weight of an average family car (1,600kg), is the result of seven intense years of work, calculations, simulations and tests by a team of 70 people and 80 partners.
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