Solar Power's Finest Airborne Publicity Stunt Is Slowly Soaring Across the U.S.

The Solar Impulse is an all-electric airplane that uses nothing but sun power to soar across the sky at very slow speeds. Its design and mechanics have been steadily improving over the years, and it has been making a series of stunt flights, staying aloft a bit longer each time.

Now, captain Bertrand Piccard has completed a leg of the Impulse's first cross-country American journey, from San Francisco to Phoenix. It took 18 hours. Its ultimate goal is to fly around the world without coming down for maintenance, but it has already done what almost nothing else has been able to do: Get the world excited about solar power.

And I mean actually excited. Fist-pumping, cheering, or at least actually-turning-up-the-volume-on-the-news-when-the-story-comes-on-ing. Because everyone's already sold on solar, in theory. Look at the results of any given poll on clean energy, and you'll see the same thing: people support it by large margins. Even Republicans. But they're not fucking pumped about it.

Plenty of people still think solar is an immature technology with funding problems that isn't ready for the prime time yet. This is incorrect, and thanks primarily to vehement political opposition and a legion of Fox News talking heads that bemoan solar and Solyndra and clean energy on a full-time basis. But, nonetheless, it is the case. People are still dubious about solar.

But then this Swiss dude hops in a giant solar plane and flies a quarter of the way across the country, no fuel needed. Wow, they say, legitimately interested in making clean energy the topic of conversation at dinner that night, solar power packs a punch. There's a reason that journalists are breathlessly following this saga, filing dispatches every time the crew comes down to grab a bite to eat.

Sure, it's a stunt. It's a damn good one. Like the prospect of piloting a plane without jet fuel, clean energy is a necessary and potentially game-changing concept. We just have to get it, and then get amped about it.