Norway’s Aggressive Push for Electric Planes
- Norway conducted its first intercity electric test flight with the Alia CX300, aiming to replace hundreds of short-haul fossil-fuel flights.
- The government is investing in charging infrastructure and adapting its 44 airports to support a nationwide rollout of electric aviation.
- With EV adoption already the highest in the world, Norway is positioning itself as a global leader in green transport and sustainable aviation.
Norway is looking to launch a domestic electric plane service to replace the dozens of daily fossil-fuelled flights to its many islands. If successful, this could encourage other countries to launch similar domestic services. This follows successful test runs of various electric flights in several countries that signal a new era of electric flight in the coming years, although the commercial rollout of electric passenger planes may still be several years away.
In September, Norway conducted a pilot flight of its electric-powered Alia CX 300, making it the first electric plane to fly from one major city to another in Norway. The flight carried empty cardboard boxes, representing cargo, and the aim is to make the aircraft suitable for carrying passengers. While the 160-km journey would take roughly four hours using two ferries, the Alia would reduce the journey time to 55 minutes.
Despite being Europe’s largest oil producer, after Russia, and the fourth-largest natural gas exporter globally, Norway has long invested in a shift away from fossil fuels to green alternatives to power domestic power, heating, and transport. The government is supporting a nationwide electrification campaign, targeting net-zero carbon emissions. This will be achieved by making oil and gas production electric-powered, continuing to invest in green electricity for power, and shifting to a green transport sector, which has been more challenging.
The Scandinavian country already uses electric ferries to transport passengers from island to island, and its airport authority, Avinor, is supporting the shift to electric commercial flight for the short-hop flights known as “milk run routes”. There are roughly 560 domestic flights in Norway, and over 75 percent of these travel fewer than 400 km.
Beta Technologies, the helicopter company Bristow, and Avinor ran the first Alia CX300 pilot flight test this month and hope it will be the first of many. The Alia, developed in Vermont by Beta Technologies, has a wingspan of just 15 metres and can reach a speed of just over 200 km an hour, powered by five batteries.
Related: New Quantum Breakthrough Could Lead to Super-Efficient ElectronicsOne of the main drawbacks to electric flight is the weight of the batteries needed to power an aircraft, which can weigh around 50 times as much as the conventional fuel used to power it for the same amount of energy. In addition, because the battery remains on board throughout the flight, as it discharges, it does not get any lighter, unlike spent fuel. The lifecycle of such large batteries is also limited, as experts warn that they may degrade quickly with regular charging. Extreme weather conditions, such as ice and strong winds, may add to this rapid degradation.
However, if operators can successfully develop batteries suitable for flight and recharge, electric aircraft could be significantly cheaper to maintain than conventional planes, as they don’t have components such as a gearbox or hydraulic system, which are expensive to maintain. To date, Beta’s longest successful flight on a single charge has been 622 km. The battery can be charged using a standard electric vehicle fast charger in just 20 to 40 minutes, which shows great promise for the refuelling turnaround.
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The government supports the shift to green flight and invested $5 million in support of the pilot test. It plans to continue investing in the sector, aiming to adapt Norway’s 44 airports for electric flight. Norway’s airport authority has already constructed an electric charging station at Stavanger airport.
Norway’s electric vehicle (EV) uptake has soared in recent years, as many consumers support a shift to green. In 2024, EVs in Norway contributed 88.9 percent of new cars sold, marking an increase from 82 percent in 2023, the highest uptake percentage of EVs in the world, according to the Norwegian Road Federation. There are now over 10,100 public EV chargers across the country. This suggests that most Norwegian consumers would be open to electric flights, as the electrification of the country’s transport sector is already well underway.
Norway is not the only country trialling electric flights, as Beta Technologies also completed a pilot 200-km flight between Sønderborg and Copenhagen in neighbouring Denmark in July with its ALIA CTOL. The Danish government aims to launch its first fully electric flight route in 2025 and hopes to make all domestic routes fossil fuel-free by 2030. It recently introduced a $2 charge per passenger on flights to help finance research and development into sustainable domestic flight. Several European countries have introduced targets for sustainable aviation and are testing electric aircraft from various emerging companies.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Beta is gaining traction, and its competitor Archer Aviation recently announced that its flagship Midnight eVTOL aircraft completed its longest piloted flight yet, travelling with a pilot for 31 minutes across 88 km. Several other startups are expected to test similar domestic flights across the U.S. in the coming years.
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By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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