{"id":526147,"date":"2010-04-13T13:59:06","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T17:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/?p=8284"},"modified":"2010-04-13T13:59:06","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T17:59:06","slug":"could-huge-solar-blimps-haul-cargo-fast-and-clean-at-30000-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/526147","title":{"rendered":"Could Huge Solar Blimps Haul Cargo Fast and Clean at 30,000 Feet?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/files\/2010\/04\/solar_airship.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8298\" title=\"solar_airship\" src=\"http:\/\/go635254.s3.amazonaws.com\/cleantechnica\/files\/2010\/04\/solar_airship.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"377\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nCould a solar-powered dirigible be the cargo ship of our peak-oil, carbon-constrained future? If the inventor of the patent pending\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.solarairship.net\/\">High Speed Solar Airship<\/a> is  correct, the future of long haul cargo combines solar powered transmission married to centuries-old dirigible technology.<\/p>\n<p>Like the old  blimp, a gas envelope lifts the airship from sea level to  its cruising  altitude. Unlike the old blimp, this new solar blimp would cruise at a much  higher altitude: at 30,000 feet.<\/p>\n<p>The HSSA would be powered by 24,000 square feet of thin-film\u00a0 solar cells in an  integrated application on top of the balloon &#8211; for 62.7 KW of rated power. However,\u00a0 that rating would be if it was on earth.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the altitude, there would also be a 30% efficiency boost of the solar power once aloft, just  from the freezing cold at that altitude. In addition, because the height  is well above cloud levels; sunlight is unobstructed. This would provide sun for well over the maximum earthbound solar access of up to 8 hours a day.<\/p>\n<p>Thinner air at that height also means faster speeds.The 320 foot long airship could reach daytime speeds of 182 MPH utilizing a 96 MPH average  Jet Stream wind speed, and even continue flying  at night with a speed of 165 MPH, carrying 60 tons of cargo, and 2 million cubic feet of helium.<br \/>\n <a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2010\/04\/13\/could-huge-solar-blimps-haul-cargo-fast-and-clean-at-30000-feet\/#more-8284\" class=\"more-link\">(more&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could a solar-powered dirigible be the cargo ship of our peak-oil, carbon-constrained future? If the inventor of the patent pending\u00a0 High Speed Solar Airship is correct, the future of long haul cargo combines solar powered transmission married to centuries-old dirigible technology. Like the old blimp, a gas envelope lifts the airship from sea level to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}