Solar and wind produce lots of energy — but not always at the right time. More battery storage could help Europe to stabilize prices and replace polluting fossil fuel energy, but roadblocks remain.
I think this is a big reason electric regional and short distance VSTOL/eSTOL will take off for both light cargo and passenger flights.
Electric aircraft aren’t on paper a great bet right now when you look at energy density and weight but that is an easy trap to get stuck in, you have to zoom out and consider how alternative energy generation potential in certain areas like arid deserts or places with a lot of wind energy to exploit could be used to charge electric aircraft with large batteries that could then fly to other regions and potentially make use of that energy in a different region than the one the alternative energy genertion occurred in. Of course that requires huge batteries but consider that alternative energy generation can “subsidize” flights to and from regions without much alternative energy/expensive energy because one leg of the journey is guranteed to be unusually cheap.
Electric aircraft could fly from alternative energy rich regions charging up for the bulk of their flights on affordable low carbon footprint energy to areas without it and then if need be charge off more expensive electricity sources until the aircraft can reach an alternative energy rich region/conditions again.
To put it into as few words as possible there is an undeniable logic here that if placing some alternative energy that cannot be currently used into battery storage is a good idea, than placing some of that energy into batteries that can fly to other places that need electricity or affordable flights is an even better idea once you work out all the difficult details.
I think this is a big reason electric regional and short distance VSTOL/eSTOL will take off for both light cargo and passenger flights.
Electric aircraft aren’t on paper a great bet right now when you look at energy density and weight but that is an easy trap to get stuck in, you have to zoom out and consider how alternative energy generation potential in certain areas like arid deserts or places with a lot of wind energy to exploit could be used to charge electric aircraft with large batteries that could then fly to other regions and potentially make use of that energy in a different region than the one the alternative energy genertion occurred in. Of course that requires huge batteries but consider that alternative energy generation can “subsidize” flights to and from regions without much alternative energy/expensive energy because one leg of the journey is guranteed to be unusually cheap.
Electric aircraft could fly from alternative energy rich regions charging up for the bulk of their flights on affordable low carbon footprint energy to areas without it and then if need be charge off more expensive electricity sources until the aircraft can reach an alternative energy rich region/conditions again.
To put it into as few words as possible there is an undeniable logic here that if placing some alternative energy that cannot be currently used into battery storage is a good idea, than placing some of that energy into batteries that can fly to other places that need electricity or affordable flights is an even better idea once you work out all the difficult details.