Biofuel is Virgin territory

It’s not just that I work in eco-friendly Berkeley that this bit of news interests me so much. I might have high expectations for alternative fuel sources, but even I’m surprised (and thrilled) to hear about Virgin Atlantic’s plans: they’re moving to biofuel.

Virgin just confirmed that their first test flight—from London to Amsterdam—will be in February. The Boeing 747 will run on 20% biofuel and 80% conventional jet fuel, making it the first commercial jet powered by biofuel. No luck for those with an eye on being a part of history—no passengers will be on-board.

Air New Zealand won’t be far behind, with their own flight planned for later in the year. Let’s hope that it catches on with other airlines, too.

Virgin is mum on details of the biofuel, but they’re expected to release the info at the time of the flight. It’s interesting that one of their partners, Boeing, had been looking at algae as a potential biofuel source. We do know that the aircraft and its engine were fine as is, not needing to be modified.

It’s certainly not a catch-all solution. And you can sense that the marketing wheels are spinning over there at Virgin. But consider the potential—stats from 2005 show that Virgin alone owned roughly 100 aircrafts, using about 700 million gallons of fuel annually.

It’s a step in the right direction.