Nordic countries set pace in electric planes after EV push

Bloomberg

The Nordic region’s pace-setting push into green transport is set to extend from cars to the air-travel market.
Iceland this month signalled plans to move towards carbon-free domestic flights by the end of the decade, while Sweden’s Heart Aerospace aims to deliver an electric plane specifically designed to ply routes linking remote Scandinavian settlements within six years.
Coordinating the region’s initiatives is the Nordic Network for Electric Aviation (NEA), founded last year and tying together airport authorities and five airlines including Finnair Oyj, Icelandair Group and SAS AB, alongside Heart and other technology innovators. The emphasis on cleaner flights follows Norway’s strides towards banishing the combustion engine, with more than half the cars sold there now electric.
“We have an opportunity here to show the world what’s possible, and also to give the industries in our countries the opportunity to be front-runners and build this market,” said Maria Fiskerud, the NEA’s project manager and former adviser to the Swedish government on aviation biofuels.
The group has received 12 million kronor ($1.4 million) in combined funding from its members and the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Greenland.
Iceland’s plan to embrace electric planes is being led by its parliament’s environment and transport committee, which has asked the government to establish a group of experts to lay the groundwork for environmentally friendly domestic services by 2030.
While Norway’s success in encouraging electric autos has been driven by generous tax incentives and concern about the economy’s reliance on oil production, the region’s focus on greener aviation is more directly rooted in the unique nature of a market characterised by flights between sparsely populated areas with limited surface transport links.
Iceland’s compact size makes it particularly well-suited to first-generation electric aircraft, which will be limited in passenger capacity by the weight of batteries needed to get even a small number of people off the ground.

Iceland’s Airports
Fiskerud said Icelandic domestic trips offer the perfect testbed, since “routes are all within an hour’s reach.”
The greater size of Sweden, for example, might be too much of a stretch for early models so that a pledge to render its domestic market fossil-free by 2030 is likely to require a mix of electric planes, sustainable jet fuel and possibly hybrid technology, she said.
Icelandair Chief Commercial Officer Jens Thordarson said he’s enthusiastic about the application of electric technology, especially in light of the island’s abundant geothermal and hydro-power green-energy resources. The carrier’s domestic arm Air Iceland Connect currently uses three 37-seat Q200 turboprops and two 70 seat Q400s from Bombardier Inc, now De Havilland Canada.
“We’re still a long way away from being able to have electric long-distance flights,” he said.