The company Nuncats set itself the goal of supplying some of the world's most remote communities with electric light aircraft. Therefore, the first charging station for electric aircraft in the UK by the project developer Renenergy was installed at the airfield of the small village in East Anglia. For this, 33 Q Peak Duo L-G8 modules from Q Cells were installed on the hangar. According to the manufacturer, the efficiency of the modules is up to 20.3 per cent.
No maintenance and no fossil fuels
The electric Sky Jeep is thus supplied with solar power. It completed a series of solar-powered flights over the East Anglia region, demonstrating how sustainably powered light aircraft can make a difference in the world's most remote areas. But so far, refuelling options are scarce. Conventional fuel is also expensive, polluting and unsustainable.
Just as solar microgrids have begun to change the fundamentals of energy supply in off-grid parts of the world, Nuncats believes solar-powered airports can play a similar role. "In the developed world, the benefits of electric aircraft are mostly about reducing CO2 and noise emissions," says Tim Bridge, co-founder of Nuncats. For the rest of the world, he says, a major untapped advantage is that electric aircraft offer a robust, low-maintenance alternative that is not dependent on fossil fuel supply chains.
Charger with five kilowatts
The prototype aircraft currently being charged has a 30-kilowatt-hour battery, enough for 30 minutes of flight. This is the minimum for a rural operation, he said. The airfield at Old Buckenham currently uses a single-phase charger of five kilowatts. But there are several options for faster solar-powered charging. The charging infrastructure can be adapted to best suit each use case. (mfo)
