Dr. Bertrand Piccard, Initiator and President of the Solar Impulse project will deliver the Keynote Speech at the Opening Session of the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (25th EU PVSEC / WCPEC-5), taking place in Valencia, Spain (Conference 6-10 September 2010 - Exhibition 6-9 September 2010). Title of the speech will be ‘Pioneering Spirit for Inventing the Future – Around the World in a Solar Airplane’. The Opening Session of the 25th EU PVSEC / WCPEC-5 on Monday, 6 September 2010, will be chaired by the Conference General Chairman Dr. Giovanni Federigo De Santi, Director, Institute for Energy (IE) JRC - European Commission, and the Conference Vice Chairmen Prof. Makoto Konagai, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, and Dr. Robert Walters, US Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC, USA.

Dr. Piccard will talk about the Solar Impulse project, its objectives, status and recent milestones as well as its potential impact on the future of renewable energies, and photovoltaic solar energy in particular. He will address to the participants of the world´s largest photovoltaic solar energy conference and its industry exhibitors. Solar Impulse was launched at the end of 2003 under the impetus of Dr. Bertrand Piccard. Together with his partner, André Borschberg, he took up the incredible challenge with the aim of flying around the world, day and night, with an airplane solely driven by solar energy, without fuel or polluting emissions. The project entered a new phase on 8 July 2010 when the Solar Impulse accomplished the first day and night flight ever propelled only by solar energy. Dr. Piccard after the flight: “This is a crucial step forward; it gives full credibility to the speeches we hold since years about renewable energies and clean techs and allows us now to get closer to the perpetual flight without using a drop of fuel!” He continues: “If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled only by solar energy, let no one claim that it is impossible to do the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems and computers. This project voices our conviction that a pioneering spirit with political vision can together change society and bring about an end to fossil fuel dependency.”

Piccard’s project to fly around the world with 100 % solar energy is the perfect start into the ambitious and busy week of this global PV solar energy event. Solar Impulse’s 100% renewable energy share is even far ahead of the European Union’s SET for 2020 targets to cover 20% of its energy demand from renewable sources by the end of this decade. Perspectives of how massive deployment of photovoltaic systems will look like in 10 years from now and how PV and other Renewable Energies will deliver an even higher percentage of the global energy consumption in the future, will be outlined and discussed during this upcoming 25th EU PVSEC / WCPEC-5.

Background Solar Impulse
Solar Impulse HB-SIA, the first aircraft designed to fly day and night without fuel or pollution, demonstrating the immense potential of renewable energies.

Seven years of intense hard work, calculations, simulations and tests by a 70-person team and 80 partners have gone into completing this totally new carbon fibre aircraft, with the wingspan of an Airbus A340 (63.4m) and the weight of an average family car (1600 kg). Never before has such a large and lightweight aircraft been built. Almost 12 000 solar cells, integrated into the wing, feed renewable energy to the four electric motors with a maximum power of 10 HP each, and by day also charge the lithium-polymer batteries (400 kg) which will enable the aircraft to fly at night. The Solar Impulse project is supported, among others, by its main partners Solvay, Omega and Deutsche Bank, by its official partner Bayer Material Science, by EPFL, its official scientific adviser, by Altran, its engineering partner, and by Dassault-Aviation, its aviation adviser.
For more information please visit: www.solar-impulse.com

Background 25th EU PVSEC / WCPEC-5

This year, the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion combines the three most important global scientific and strategic PV Conferences: the 25th EU PVSEC, the 36th US IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference and the 20th Asia/Pacific PV Science and Engineering Conference. Together with the EU PVSEC’s PV Industry Exhibition on 80,000 sqm, this unique PV solar gathering constitutes the world’s leading science-to-science, business-to-business and science-to-industry forum for the global PV solar sector.

For many years now, the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition has combined a respected international scientific conference with a renowned PV Industry Exhibition and trade fair. During 5 days of conference and 4 days of trade fair, new products and technical innovations from all areas of photovoltaics and from all over the world are on show.

This global PV solar event is supported by European and international organisations such as the European Commission, UNESCO - United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation - Natural Sciences Sector, WCRE - World Council for Renewable Energy, the International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA) and by a close institutional cooperation with the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). The Technical Programme is coordinated by the European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre.

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24.08.2010, WIP Renewable Energies

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