The last thing you want to hear is yet another way we are all destroying the world around us. But too bad, we’re going to talk about it. The topic of airline travel is not often considered by the average global traveller, but the impact of plane travel on the environment is huge. Airline travel has even been dubbed “the biggest carbon sin” by New York Times writer Elisabeth Rosenthal and is one of the largest contributors to climate change.

The fact of the matter is, sometimes you need to get from one place to another and you don’t have weeks and months to spare on a boat or a train. Luckily, many airlines and industry regulators are taking measures to reduce their impact on the environment. Some of the ways in which the airline industry is able to reduce their environmental impact include:

  • Upgrading their fleets with more fuel-efficient aircraft
  • Increasing fuel efficiency standards and new technologies
  • Water saving and recycling policies
  • Removing excess weight
  • Offering carbon offset programs for their customers
  • Using alternate energy sources

But one of the most revolutionising technologies that is improving the airline industry is solar power. Here are three ways the airline industry is going green with solar energy.

1. Solar Powered Airports

Solar airports are one of the more realistic trends in the aviation industry today. In fact, there are already airports that are run on entirely renewable energy, like the Cochin International Airport in India. Evidently, aircraft are not the only part of the aviation industry that harm the environment. Airports themselves are more often than not enormously energy dependent pieces of infrastructure, ones that produce large amounts of greenhouse gases.

2. Solar Powered Planes

Fuel consumption is one of the most damaging areas of the aviation industry, with US commercial airlines alone burning through around 50 million gallons of kerosene daily. This is not only tolling on the environment, but it’s extremely costly in financial terms for airlines and therefore passengers. In March last year, Andrew Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard made history with the world’s first round-the-world flight using only solar power – a huge step in the direction of fuel free aviation. The future of solar powered planes sees large passenger planes covered in solar photovoltaic arrays with lithium ion batteries for solar energy storage that will power electric motors.

3. Hybrid Technology

While many experts are advocating the promising potential of solar aviation, there are many sceptics in terms of the technology’s ability to handle the weight, speed and distances of commercial aircraft. Many are suggesting the benefits of the technology will be seen more in scientific research, communications and as a source of electricity to complement other sources of power on airplanes. So, if we’re going to be realistic, entirely solar powered aircrafts are not a likely possibility for a number of reasons. But developments in hybrid technologies for more sustainable air travel is much more likely to happen in the near future. Creating a Toyota Prius equivalent in aircraft form is a likely direction airline will go in continuing attempts to become more carbon neutral.