Renewable Edge of Spain Gives it the Hydrogen Advantage

Bertrand Piccard, the president of the Solar Impulse Foundation, is pretty sure of the renewable edge of Spain and in a conversation with EFE, asserts that the implementation of the energy transition will readily allow it to generate liquid hydrogen, a gas that is the main focus of the next project of the Swiss explorer and aeronaut, the Climate Impulse aircraft.

The renewable edge of Spain is due to the fact that it is an accomplished player in wind and solar energy, which Piccard assures, is outstanding and admirable, and he affirms that with the capacity for renewable energy that it has, it can generate liquid hydrogen effortlessly – that is undoubted.

The explorer is a proponent of clean energy and sustainable development with the Solar Impulse Foundation and has been engaged for four years with a group of experts within the manufacture of the Climate Impulse aircraft, which will be fueled by hydrogen, with which he intends to make the first circumnavigation of the world with an aircraft of this kind in 2030.

Bertrand Piccard, who is a psychiatrist as well as a psychotherapist and comes from a lineage of explorers – his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first individual who flew into the stratosphere – around 16,000 meters high, and created the bathyscaphe with Jacques Piccard, his son, who was apparently the first man to descend into the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 11,000 meters, which is the deepest part of the ocean.

In June 2025, Piccard formally unveiled the Climate Impulse model at the VivaTech 2026 Fair in Paris, an endeavor that, according to him, has the backing of entities from multiple nations and that will be awarded the political sponsorship – not financial of the European Commission – EC in acknowledgement of the decarbonization initiative.

As per him, hydrogen is crucial for the sovereignty and competitiveness of Europe.  For this reason, Climate Impulse has partnered with the Sasha Coalition, an alliance of 28 European synthetic fuels as well as electric/hybrid aviation start-ups, to request that the EC, the European Union, commit funding from the European Emissions Trading System – ETS to the advancement of hydrogen.

He says the political support for Climate Impulse is coming at the exact same time as the European Commission is talking about scrapping the waiver for international flights from the ETS, a framework that caps the emissions of greenhouse gases – GHGs from big industries.

There are several countries such as Spain, along with Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Luxembourg, who have asked the EC not to reduce the goals of the ETS to make progress towards a decarbonized economy in this structure.

Piccard believes that the introduction of the ETS would compel aviation companies to put money into a cleaner fuel like hydrogen and would enable construction companies like Airbus and Boeing to build better-performing aircraft and decrease fuel waste at airports.

As he says, the nature of this fuel is taking renewable energy and using it to produce liquid hydrogen, maintaining it in a supply storage facility at an airport, transporting the hydrogen to an aircraft, and then flying it without releasing carbon.

One can get plane tickets more affordable than train tickets

He adds that air transport users are paying for airline tickets that are more affordable than train tickets, which is not common because planes emit pollutants and release CO2 and travelers are not paying for it when it would be common for them to pay in their airline tickets for the carbon footprint and pollution generated on a flight.

In addition, it would serve as a way of encouraging airlines to lower fuel consumption and emissions, a decrease that would also result in cheaper tickets, he says, which would essentially entail having more economically profitable companies.

Hydrogen when it comes to industrial purposes

Hydrogen production, he says, could be done with the storage and utilization of energy that is not used at night from solar, wind, and maybe even nuclear energy.  Green, clean, and decarbonized hydrogen is not only appropriate for heavy transport but also for industry, like steel, which needs an abundance of heat. He maintains that hydrogen is indeed a good way to capture that heat; in addition, it is essential for the fertilizer industry.

He adds that it is a gas that has been utilized for a long time – the 1960s Gemini space program in the US utilized liquid hydrogen for spacecraft and fuel cells—but he complains that one is yet to learn a lesson from it.

Piccard is fully convinced of decarbonization to reduce global climate change and that the energy switch is attainable thanks to the possibilities of the clean alternatives and technology that are available, which he hopes to show with the Climate Impulse project and hydrogen to attain greener air transport.

In his view, it is paramount to demonstrate that we can do greater things than the way we actually do today.  It is also an indication of hope for young people who are very frustrated and think that there isn’t any solution or future to look forward to, but that statement is not the case, Piccard insists.