The days of the calamitous Hindenburg disaster is buried and forgotten as a new revolution of airships focus on the clean, green movement of atmospheric decarbonisation.
The latest in a growing roster of hopefuls is France-based company, HyLight, who announced this week a USD4 million investment for development of its hydrogen-powered airship, The HyLighter.
Marketed as “a pioneer of aerial inspection,” the company claims there is “a revolution in aerial photography underway.” Its new investors range from Y Combinator, Ring Capital and Kima Ventures to Marc Tarpenning, the co-Founder of Tesla.
This deal enables HyLight to accelerate the deployment of its airship “on an industrial scale” to offer “the first zero-emission solution” capable of inspecting any type of infrastructure from the air including power lines, gas pipelines and railway tracks.
Martin Bocken, CEO of HyLight, remarked, “This round of financing is a decisive milestone. It allows us to realise our vision of providing large-scale infrastructure inspection in a decarbonised and highly precise manner. With the support of our investors, we are ready to redefine the standards of industrial inspection and meet growing environmental and regulatory requirements”.
Martin Bocken
An obvious question: Surely, drones can do the same job, more easily, faster and at less cost? And drones are “decarbonised” too.
Meanwhile, HyLight points out in its press release that infrastructure monitoring “is a costly and complex matter.” It states, “There are 80 million kilometres of energy infrastructure on our planet. That is 200 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. These power lines and pipelines are critical infrastructure for the proper functioning of societies. Therefore, they must be inspected at regular intervals (sometimes several times per month) to ensure their good condition and prevent failures.” Adding, “However, today, infrastructure operators struggle to conduct accurate, large-scale inspections.”
“As a result,” the release continues, “methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure represent 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and result in annual losses of USD7 billion in the European and North American markets. The costs of power outages amount to USD18 billion per year in the USA alone.” It then points out, “However, the regulatory framework is tightening, requiring operators to accelerate inspections. But effectively identifying small faults in such large areas is like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
The company reckons the airship can drastically reduce inspection costs and enables ultra-precise data to be collected over large areas, all without emitting greenhouse gases.
Describing its craft as “a cross between a drone and airship”, it is easy to control and transport and, can fly for up to 10 hours, over a distance of 350 km. Its flight speed of 35 km/h, HD cameras and sensors (LIDAR, thermal, infrared, etc.) ensure optimal precision for any type of mission.
Apart from a longer flight duration, very similar to a drone… then.
The company piles on the marketing-speak, saying it has recently joined the SkyDeck accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as leading French accelerators such as Wilco, Agoranov, the Propulse program run by the French Transport Innovation Agency and the EDHEC network via Générations, the seed fund of Ring Capital and EDHEC.
HyLight also benefits from the support of high-level mentors and investors such as Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning and the former SpaceX launch director, Abhishek Tripathi. Furthermore, the start-up has implemented a project with Enedis, Europe’s largest power line operator. HyLight is also a France 2030 winner, supported by the IDF region.
The USD4 million investment enables the company to achieve three crucial milestones.
- To carry out its first large-scale operations.
- Offer resources to recruit new experts in various fields including aviation regulation, embedded systems, hydrogen systems, mechanical engineering, industrialisation and software development.
- To develop new improved versions of its airship, making it even safer, more efficient and easier to produce on a large scale.
Myriam Maestroni, President and Founder of e5t, one of HyLight’s new investors, remarked, “This innovative technology provides a decarbonised and efficient solution to meet the growing needs of the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors. We are confident that HyLight is well positioned to become a global leader in this rapidly expanding field.”
The company also hopes its airship can be deployed in other sectors including forestry, changes in sea level and water stress effecting farmland. In a nutshell, help observe and understand climate change.
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