Partners

Solar Impulse Partners have in common a pioneering spirit, a long-term vision and a desire to explore new horizons. They share the basic values of the project: exploration, technological innovation, competence, entrepreneurial expertise, passion, teamwork, dream and emotion.

Like Solar Impulse’s initiators, they are keen to use these values to promote renewable energies and the technologies needed for protecting the environment.

Main Partners

At the highest level of association with and contribution to the project are four Main Partners, each in a different field of activity. These partners are named on the airplane, on the pilots' uniforms and on those of the Solar Impulse Team, on all construction and operations sites and during all flight missions. Our Main Partners’s reputation and influence are essential to the success of the project. They help to relay its key messages and also benefit from the project’s enormous communications potential. Right now the four Main Partner slots have been filled. These Main Partners, who have already guaranteed the construction of the first two prototypes are SOLVAY, an international industrial Group active in Chemistry, OMEGA, a watch brand with a worldwide and ‘lunar’ reputation and a pioneer of Olympic timing, and DEUTSCHE BANK which through the project is communicating its taste for performance and its long-term vision, which includes strengthening the link between economics and ecology. SCHINDLER, a leading global elevator and escalator provider, and a technology pioneer for clean mobility.

Official Partners

On the second level of partnership and next in order of importance, we have the Official Partners, again each exclusively representing its particular field of activity. Official Partners too have extensive communication rights to the project, including use of the official Solar Impulse names and symbols. They too are systematically identified by Solar Impulse at the official sites and during the different flight missions.

Official supporters

The Official Supporters are the third Partnership level. They can associate themselves with the flight missions and take advantage of being an official name in a variety of communications and promotional activities for the duration of the project.

Official suppliers

At the fourth and last official partnership level we find the Official Suppliers. Official Partners enjoy various promotional rights, an official name and participation in the test flights.

Institutional and aeronautics partners

Solar Impulse can count of the knowledge and experience of major institutions and players in the worlds of science, aerospace and leading edge technology, keen to join in the solar adventure and integrate it into their respective technical and scientific fields. Their advice is as precious as the credibility and prestige they bring to the project.

Timeline

ACROSS AMERICA 2013: PARTNER CONTRIBUTIONS

Conquering new heights together

As André continues his descent toward Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, a flight that might set a new world distance record in the solar aviation category, innovation is definitely reaching new heights, but not only in America’s skies.

Schindler, a Solar Impulse Main Partner and world leading elevator ...

Schindler, a Solar Impulse Main Partner and world leading elevator and escalator manufacturer, is following Solar Impulse’s pioneering spirit, also vertically, but in a different way. Schindler heavily invested in a concept; a concept that became reality and is now being commercialized: a solar-powered elevator.

A revolutionary achievement, Schindler’s solar elevator does not only reduce energy consumption, it can run entirely on sunlight. Furthermore, because of their capacity to run independently of the power grid, it allows them to function, undisturbed, in case of a power outage.

Prototype solar elevators were tested in Barcelona (Spain) and Switzerland in residential, low-rise buildings. The energy is collected by solar panels on the building’s rooftop while excess energy is stored in the Energy Storage Device (ESD) until needed. Backup power needs are provided by a one- phase grid connection, significantly simpler and more cost-efficient compared to standard three-phase connections.

The embedded Schindler engineers are the direct partnership link between Schindler and Solar Impulse, demonstrating the intense information and innovation exchange between the two companies. But Schindler’s contribution to the project goes beyond. Thanks to them and five other partners, Solvay, Bayer MaterialScience, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, SunPower and the Swiss Confederation, this year’s Across America mission has come true.

23.05.2013 By Viktoria Dijakovic

CONFERENCE & PANEL DISCUSSION

23.04.2013

ACROSS AMERICA: PRESS CONFERENCE PART II

28.03.2013

MADE IN SWITZERLAND

An idea born in Switzerland

Today, in the quaint city of Bern, which also happens to be Switzerland’s capital, the Swiss Federal Council reinforced its support of the Solar Impulse project.

Thanks to this, Solar Impulse will continue to benefit ...

Today, in the quaint city of Bern, which also happens to be Switzerland’s capital, the Swiss Federal Council reinforced its support of the Solar Impulse project.

Thanks to this, Solar Impulse will continue to benefit from the hangars in Dübendorf (where HB-SIB is being built) and Payerne (where HB-SIA is currently housed and where the test flights of HB-SIB will occur). In the meantime, Switzerland’s affiliation to the project provides the ideal platform to showcase the Helvetian innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.

It’s not by chance that Solar Impulse took flight in this miniscule country at the heart of the Alps. Switzerland has always heavily invested in education and research and is currently home to some of the best laboratories, Universities and technologically innovative SMEs in the world. In fact, the project started thanks to a feasibility study done by the Swiss Polytechnic University in Lausanne (EPFL) while the aircraft was built using a number of materials researched, tested and manufactured within the Confederation’s borders.

The celebrated little white cross superimposed on a red square will once again proudly fly, this time through American skies. Let’s hope we’ll be able to break out, at least once, from the usual clichés of chocolates, cheeses and banks to show another side of this dynamic landlocked country...

13.02.2013 By Viktoria Dijakovic

2013 ACROSS AMERICA

The dream lives on

Thanks to loyal partners like Solvay, Schindler, Bayer MaterialScience and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the dream to conquer new horizons is coming true. Their additional support allows Solar Impulse to achieve a flight mission which was not at all planned before we made the decision to rebuild the wing spar and to postpone the round-the-world flight from 2014 to 2015: crossing the United States from West Coast to East Coast this year! Other partners will probably join in the adventure.

Preparations for departure have increased in intensity. HB-SIA is now dismantled and the material needed for the mission is packed in big wooden crates, all of which will be loaded in a Boeing 747 and shipped to Moffett Airfield at the Ames Research Center of NASA in the heart of Silicon Valley; and from there, a new adventure begins…

For more information about the partnerships:

Solvay

Schindler

Bayer MaterialScience

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

06.02.2013 By Viktoria Dijakovic

MAIN PARTNER IN FORBES

Solar Impulse’s Main Partner Ranked by Forbes

Solar Impulse’s Main Partner Schindler, the leading elevator and escalator manufacturer, was ranked as one of the world’s most innovative companies by the American business magazine

Solar Impulse’s Main Partner Schindler, the leading elevator and escalator manufacturer, was ranked as one of the world’s most innovative companies by the American business magazine Forbes. This further proves the cutting-edge role Solar Impulse’s partners play on a global scale.

“This honor is a reflection of Schindler’s unwavering drive to continuously set new standards in the elevator industry with our innovative technology,” said Bill Fiacco, president, Sales & Marketing for Schindler North America. “We promote a concept of ‘mobility for all,’ designing systems that ensure everyone has accessibility to buildings and services, including destination-based and personal service technologies that address the changing needs of a modern world.”

Schindler joined Solar Impulse in September 2011. In its strive for ever more efficient, cleaner and sustainable mobility to address tomorrow’s challenges, Schindler and Solar Impulse were meant to become a team. Three Schindler engineers are currently embedded in the project offering their expertise in new technologies and research and development. It’s a win-win partnership with both actors benefitting from new insights into lightweight structures and modeling.

The entire Solar Impulse team congratulates Schindler for its achievements!

20.11.2012 By Viktoria Dijakovic

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