Embraer and EDP, a company that operates in all Brazilian energy sectors, announced a partnership for research on electric aircraft. Through the EDP Smart division, the Portuguese-based multinational announced a financial contribution for the acquisition of the energy storage and battery charging technologies for Embraer’s all-electric demonstrator aircraft project.
In addition to financial support, EDP will evaluate operational characteristics such as weight, energy efficiency and quality, thermal control and management, loading, unloading, and operational safety. The project utilizes an EMB-203 Ipanema, a small single-engine aircraft, as a testing platform. The prototype is already under development, and the first flight is scheduled for 2021.
It would not be the first agreement signed by Embraer regarding aeronautical electrification, since in 2019, it carried out one with Brazilian company WEG, but the current one would expand and contribute information to the studies already carried out. The objective of both alliances is to rapidly increase the knowledge about technologies necessary for the use and integration of batteries and electric motors to increase the energy efficiency of the propulsion systems of the aircraft.
Electrification is just one project in a series of initiatives being developed by Embraer and the entire aeronautical industry aimed at ensuring the commitment to environmental sustainability, as already exemplified by biofuel developments to reduce carbon emissions. Also, EDP’s decision to collaborate is not an isolated initiative but is one of the intermediate steps to achieve the goal of electrifying its total fleet by 2030 and developing new offers and commercial solutions that promote the energy transition.
In preparation for the first flight at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto unit, ground tests have taken place at Embraer’s facilities in Botucatu, in the interior of São Paulo, in preparation for the first flight, which will take place at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto unit.
With this new agreement, Brazil joins France and the United Kingdom to search for electric planes that facilitate transport, reduce traffic, and collaborate with the environment.
