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from the worlds-first-commercial-electric-beaver dept.
The Guardian is reporting;
The world's first fully electric commercial aircraft has taken its inaugural test flight, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and flying for 15 minutes.
"This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work," said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Australian engineering firm magniX.
The company designed the plane's motor and worked in partnership with Harbour Air, which ferries half a million passengers a year between Vancouver, Whistler ski resort and nearby islands and coastal communities.
The recycled 62-year-old de Havilland Beaver seaplane is designed for short hops of 160 km or less, which represents the majority of Harbour Air flights. They're looking to save millions on costly maintenance and downtime. Harbour Air hopes to convert most of their airplanes after certification.
(Score: 2) by The Shire on Thursday December 12 2019, @07:38PM (2 children)
BC imports power from the us. Hydro is truly a fantastic source of power, there's no question of that, but hydro alone doesn't do enough. You cannot expand hydro to meet an expanding demand for electricity, hydro is already doing as much as it can. Filling that gap will require another source of power generation and right now the only 24/7 sources of such power are fossil fuels and nuclear, neither of which are in the good graces of the climate alarmists.
Flying electric planes, cars, and buses are great so long as the source of that electricity is also clean and efficient. I just don't see how even Canada, with all it's hydro, will be able to keep up without also going nuclear.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 12 2019, @11:40PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Friday December 13 2019, @02:24AM
Old statistics. B.C. used to import power to meet domestic demand but hasn't needed to for some time. We still import power from the PNW when it is really cheap, conserving water in the reservoirs until the price increases then use the water to export electricity at a profit. We don't need to do this to meet local demand, but profit is profit.
The Site C dam in the Peace River while controversial will bring on line a significant increase in power generating capacity, fueling our Teslas and allowing us to tell Alberta to take its tar bitumen tankers and get stuffed.