Broken Solar Impulse battery had ‘worked for years’ before unexpected damage

Solar-powered circumnavigation of the world is on hold until April as team try to find necessary €20 million for repairs to damaged battery.

Solar Impulse will be grounded in Hawaii until April next year. AP

DUBAI // The Solar Impulse 2 team said it will take its time on the repairs required to get the solar-powered aircraft to complete its round-the-world trip after “unexpected” battery damage.

Elke Neumann, media relations officer for the project, told of how the damage to the battery, which will cost €20 million (Dh80m) to repair, was not anticipated.

“For five or six years we had no problem with the battery. The battery damage wasn’t really expected,” Ms Neumann said.

“The thing is, we flew later than anticipated so the weather was warmer than we thought and the battery was too insulated.”

The world record attempt by Solar Impulse 2 to circumnavigate the globe under the power of the sun looks likely to be sidelined until at least April next year because of the repairs required and limited winter daylight.

The financial black hole needs to be filled before pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg can get behind the controls and continue their voyage.

The solar plane set off from Abu Dhabi in March and reached Hawaii last month from Japan after a 118-hour record-breaking journey across the Pacific.

Mr Piccard has returned to Switzerland, his homeland, to help raise the funds needed to complete the challenge.

Ms Neumann said: “There is no rush, we have a good situation in Hawaii, we can take this time to repair, do test flights in March and April maybe even optimise the battery.

“We won’t fly until February because of the winter – the days are shorter and the nights longer and we need a certain amount of sunlight to charge. It doesn’t have much to do with the weather, it has more to do with the seasons.”

The flight is demonstrating the use of clean technologies and renewable energies. From Hawaii, Si2 is set to fly across the United States and over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe before arriving back at its final destination, Abu Dhabi.

* Additional reporting by Naser Al Wasmi