Solar energy is the leader among ‘green energy sources’ without a shadow of a doubt and with its conquests still not completely done on land, it already is soaring towards the clouds with glee. The world’s first completely solar-powered flight will attempt to complete a journey across the world come May of 2011 and if that proves to be a successful venture, then you can expect it to take off into the commercial production mode the same year. The flight dubbed as ‘Solar Impulse’ is all set to fly on wings powered by solar energy in the coming years.

The flight will be a trip around the planet and the 1500 kg flight will be solely powered by the 12,000 photovoltaic cells, each containing 130 micron monocrystalline silicon on its wings. The flight will obviously be limited in its ability to carry weight and while the technology might be relegated to small and light aircrafts for sometime to come in the future, this still is a giant step forwards. The flight will even fly at night by storing the energy in its 400 kg battery pack. Let’s see how well this really does.

Via: cleantechnica