I look forward to seeing the day our top skin of our wings are made with solar cells and recharging the battery in flight. Just enough to extend the flight time by 50% would be great.
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I dont see it happening for a very long time if every in our lifetime. – not a priority for photovoltaic developers in fabrics area. They are struggling to increase % and we are probably 10-20 yrs out to get to 50% if we can in rigid panels
Cheers
Even with current solar technology, we could cover a wing in panels and in direct sunlight and have enough power to fly without a battery. Sadly no solar cell is capable of stretching around compound curves needed for a paraglider, let alone can come close to taking the abuse we put our wings through.
My prediction is that we will either need an entirely new generation of “fabric”, with the fabric itself turned into the Solar cell. Or we would need to turn the individual threads that make up the fabric into solar cells. Either way, I believe the technology for a usable solar paramotor wing is decades out.
The Solar Impulse 2 in fact did this (rigid wing of course) but I’d hate to imagine the cost of such a system. Doesn’t seem like it’d be practical. Besides, if you want to fly recreationally using solar power there is a much simpler and more direct method that has been proven to work very well 
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I charge with solar when I am at home, so, sometimes I fly on sunshine.
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There are dozens of maned aircraft that have done this and thousands of unmanned solar aircraft. Infact I’m working on building a 100% solar radio control quadcopter drone which will be one of the first in the world.
As I mentioned before, solar technology hasn’t really matured yet. There is a legitimate chance that even with current technology available today you could make a solar paramotor work, but the first time the wing touches the ground, it would destroy many of the solar cells.
In the end, the technology may never advance to the point where this becomes realistic, or maybe in the future we get cloth with comparable properties to our current nylon cloth that can also provide solar power and can be adopted with relative ease into a PPG wing.
This is by far the most practical way to do it. Its even more feasible on an electric car but Elon Musk always talks about how 98% of people wouldnt want to pay for the extra cost & complexity so it does make sense to focus on it.
Plus I would hate to damage a wing made out of solar cells. I already hate how fragile and expensive my wings are lol
Bonus: you can already fly on solar power alone and many people do it everyday, its called riding thermals in your paraglider
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You can go back to 1990-ish with Eric Raymond and the Sunseeker I to find a pretty viable solar-cell wing aircraft, but he also had a lot of issues with water shorting if he encountered rain. He improved the design with Sunseeker II, though it was primarily the same design.
His latest design, Sunseeker Duo, is a two-seat retractable tricycle gear design that seems like a good all around plane - not just a solar wing flying experiment: https://www.youtube.com/c/Solar-flight/videos
oh yes, easy with light pod harness eppg 
Here’s a pretty interesting Twitter thread on the cooling of the Plaid battery pack. Sounds pretty advanced.
https://twitter.com/ajtourville/status/1470132812208553987?t=Rgnbzo6Z9d25DcRE-19RUw&s=19
Not going to happen anytime soon.
the Paramotor pilots that run gas won’t be interested in Electric until they have at least 2 hour runs then the charge time may be an option.
Having a spare battery sounds good but that will increase the cost of the E Paramotor over what a gas paramotor can be had for.
Not having the extra battery will have the pilot have to deal with long charge times.
The gas paramotors seem to be used for long distance or exploring. A couple of pilots I have seen have done cross country stints. The electric Paramotor will have the same problem TESLA cars have, they are good for 300+ miles then they have to find a charge station for minimum an hour or more. Gas stops at a gas station, 5 minutes and they are on their way.
If you are going to enjoy simple flights, stay near a base somewhere, the hour (hopefully 2 hours someday) would be enough. Hunting down thermals would make that flight sweeter. It would be difficult to use it for any kind of distance flight due to charging.
And where Gas Paramotors are more or less stable where weight is concerned, depending on the technology, batteries can add or lessen weight. Have to wait to see what is developed.
Yes, point stated “A couple” – If someone could put the average flight times of all paramotorists, I would wager it would be under an hour.
For sure we need better batteries - I would say we are 5-8 years out before we see the same size pack the SP140 4kw pack is package in to be double the capacity for the same size – if those cells are being proven in the lab today it will take that long to be mass manufactured.
Cheers
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OK I am compelled to offer a few clarifications. I have a Long Range Tesla which I have had for just over two years. You are correct that you do have to stop every 250 to 300 miles to charge, but with a supercharger that time is 35 to 40 minutes. Usually that time is spent getting a bite to eat, stretching my legs, checking the tie downs on my paramotor, or finding a restroom. Others experience may differ, but from my view, your exaggerations on charging times are exactly that…exaggerations.
However to the more important point of electric paramotors, you are right the flight time is not ideal, or even close to that achievable with gas. For that reason for now I keep both GAS and ELECTRIC. 90+% of the time my flights are under an hour so the electric works great for me. And for those occasions when I do want to go further I keep my vittorazzi in shape. The EPPG is not yet a cross country machine, if that is your primary use then definitely wait…it may be years.
In the meantime, Though not perfect I have enjoyed my Tesla for over 2 years and 40,000 miles (favorite car ever owned, and I’ve had nice cars), and over a hundred flights on my SP140, also my favorite despite stated limitations, for the many many benefits.
Enjoy the air and stay safe!!
Just my 2cents 
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Question though for the engineers, any possibility of linking say a half size battery to the current configuration to increase range? Would that be a 50% time increase for a 19 # weight penalty?
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Thanks for that that thought.
My comment was just that, a comment.
- I based it on a gentleman that had traveled from Texas to Illinois in his Tesla and my comments reflected his feelings. I have an electric car and I do have my own thoughts about them. I really like mine and it was engineered for both local city transport as well as long distance travel.
- The biggest benefit of the electric paramotor is hands down, reliability. I think the only thing that could become a problem in the long run would be the electronics.
I knew the electric models would come and now it will keep improving over time. - Fly safe -
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It is precisely the duration limitations that are currently holding me back from investing in an eppg. In the mountains where I live, planning for a cross country worthy duration is of critical need, to allow advisable safety margins even for shorter distances.
Once Elon showed that electric could be viable
in cars, it provided the impetus for other companies to develop and improve on their own electric technology. Hopefully the same will be true with EPPG. Now that it is happening, I am looking forward to improved battery technology, lighter weight and longer flights. (Or even the same weight with longer flights).
That being said, I had some hesitation being somewhat of a founding member of the SP140 club, but I am exceedingly pleased with how well the first iteration turned out.
Here’s to progress!
California is going to implement a ban on sales of small ICEs in the state. Hence, electrics will eventually start dominating. This will create the markets that can drive improvements in electrics technology.
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Here in Canada, will be one of the late adopters by 2035