Tesla-loving Norway wants to be pioneer in electric planes
EUROPEAN NATION HAS PLEDGED TO CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 40% BY 2030
Home to some of the busiest flight routes in Europe, whisking passengers across a rugged and mountainous landscape, Norway’s aviation industry now readies to go electric.
Norway is one of Tesla’s biggest markets, with about 8,500 cars sold last year. Now, the country whose tourism sales pitch is “Powered by Nature” wants to be a pioneer in the market for electric planes.
Wideroe, a local airline that operates small planes on short haul flights, sees no major technological barriers ahead and plans to launch its first commercial aircraft propelled by some form of electric power within the next 10 years.
“Today, we fly the smallest aircraft on the shortest routes, based on an ageing technology that was developed in the 1970s,” Wideroe’s CEO Stein Nilsen said in an interview.
“There’s been much development in the aviation sector, but not on the smallest aircraft.”
Today marks the inaugural flight of an electric two-seater plane, which will take off from Oslo Airport with the country’s transport minister as a passenger. The plane, made by Slovenian manufacturer Pipistrel, can fly for up to one hour.
Avinor, a state-owned company that operates the country’s airports, say the short test flight will demonstrate the feasibility of pollution-free aviation.
Western Europe’s largest exporter of oil and gas has pledged to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 40 per cent by 2030. About half of all new cars sold there are electric (Germany only recently leapfrogged Norway as Europe’s biggest market for electric cars), and battery-powered ferry boats are also being built.
The thrust to electric planes should cut emissions further, though environmentalists are sceptical.
“The growth in both Norwegian and international aviation is one of the big drivers of climate change, which is completely out of control,” said Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace in Norway. “Even if there’s a small chance that we’ll be able to get some small electric aircraft in the air covering short distances, there’s no indication that we’ll be able to replace today’s medium and long haul distances with electric propulsion.”
Automobile industry
That message fails to resonate with Wideroe, which likens what’s happening in the aviation industry to the rapid transformation currently underway in the automobile industry.
“Those who need to drive fossil fuelled cars will still buy these cars, but [the industry’s] total emissions are nevertheless coming down,” Wideroe’s Nilsen said. “We must have a similar view for the aviation industry.”
Norwegian Air, Norway’s largest airline and Europe’s thirdlargest low-cost carrier, has already expanded its fleet with fuel-efficient aircraft, such as the Boeing 737 MAX.
But like other major airlines it has no plans to go electric until the technology matures.
“When electric aircraft are able to replace today’s commercial machines, we will of course be interested,” spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen said.