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Norway Will Make All Short-Haul Flights Electric By 2040 (independent.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the first-in-the-world dept.

Norway's public operator of air transport plans to make all short-haul flights in the country entirely electric by 2040. "State-owned Avinor, which operates most of Norway's civil airports, is aiming to be the 'first in the world' to switch to electric air transport," reports The Independent. From the report: "We think that all flights lasting up to 1.5 hours can be flown by aircraft that are entirely electric," chief executive Dag Falk-Petersen told AFP. The announcement confirms Norway's reputation as a leader in electric power. In a 2017 report, Avinor announced that in cooperation with the Norwegian Sports Aviation Association and major airlines, it had set up a development project for electric aircraft. Avinor said it had "called for Norway to be established as a test arena and innovation center for the development of electric aircraft." Avinor intends to reduce aircraft greenhouse gas emissions in the short term by phasing in biofuels in the coming years, and then build on these reductions by phasing in electric planes.

4 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing by hawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A timeline to switch over before the first successful prototypes been demonstrated . . .

    hawk

    1. Re:Amazing by Rei · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Quite to the contrary, I think it's absurdly pessimistic. People always underestimate S-curves. They did it with wind, they did it with solar, people are in various phases of realizing that they did it with EV passenger vehicles, and they're actively doing it with electric road transport, electric marine transport, and electric aircraft.

      There's several companies close to offering electric puddle jumpers. Today. It's not going to take 22 years to transition.

      --
      Santa Ana Winds: Like the Dustbowl, but with awards shows.
    2. Re:Amazing by drinkypoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      so when you take an aircraft such as an ATR-72 and tell it to fly around and land with an extra 1.5 tonnes of weight for it's entire lifespan, it's going to be an issue.

      That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works. You don't put batteries into an existing design. You make a new design which accommodates the batteries correctly. Luckily, basically every major aviation company has been working on this for decades, and every one of them has a prototype. For example, Boeing has committed to a hybrid by 2022 and are backing a startup which plans to have craft in the air within five years.

      The entire aviation industry thinks this is not just possible, but happening, and you don't. I know who I trust in this case, and it's not you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re: Nope by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2040 is 22 years from now. So some politician gets publicity and greenie support while needing to budget nothing, negotiate nothing, and pay no consequences since he will be retired long before anything happens.

    A lot can change in 22 years, so by 2040 electric flights may actually make sense, but that won't be because of any political pronouncements. It is nerds that change the world, not politicians.