Pilatus buys solar fuel from Synhelion

Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG will purchase 200 tons of solar fuel from Synhelion every year from 2027. The aircraft manufacturer from Nidwalden and the solar fuel pioneer from Lugano have signed a corresponding purchase agreement, Synhelion announced in a press release. The agreement strengthens the joint commitment of the two companies to the defossilization of aviation.

It was only in June that Pilatus and Synhelion announced the start of a strategic partnership under which Pilatus became a shareholder in Synhelion. "We are delighted that our strategic partnership with Synhelion has now led to the first signed fuel purchase agreement," Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher is quoted as saying in the press release. "We want to use synthetic fuels in our own fleet as soon as possible and later offer them to our customers too." In a first step, the solar fuel will be used for test and demonstration flights by Pilatus.

Synhelion plans to produce the synthetic kerosene in its future commercial production plant for solar fuels in Spain. The plant is designed for a capacity of 1,000 tons of solar fuel per year and is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of 2027. "We are delighted to welcome Pilatus not only as a strategic partner and investor, but also as a key customer in our global rollout of solar fuels," explains Philipp Furler, co-CEO and co-founder of Synhelion. The pioneering company only commissioned its first industrial demonstration plant for the production of solar fuels in Germany in June.

Synhelion was spun off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich(ETH) in 2016. In addition to its headquarters in Lugano, the company also has branches in Zurich and Germany. ce/hs