Design and route optimisation for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting

Based on commercial passenger-carrying airships like LZ129 or R100, a hypothetical electric rigid framed airship including a solar cell covered surface and a lithium-ion battery is designed. The size of the battery and the coverage with solar cells are selected such that long-haul flights are possible. To simulate flight times, weather data from 2019 and time-dependent solar irradiation are used. Travel route and battery use are optimised in order to reduce flight times. For a mid-range and long-haul use case for passenger or freight transport, travel times have been calculated. Building on these results, analysis of CO₂ emissions, land-use, and operating costs are carried out to reveal that depending on the use case, CO₂ emissions of solar-powered airships could be as low as 1% to 5% of the emissions of a conventional aircraft at an estimated energy consumption in USD per km of 0.5% to 2.5%.