Today, the Solar Impulse resumed its bid to become the first airplane to circumnavigate the globe powered only by the Sun. The business backstory took flight more than a decade ago. When Bertrand Piccard visited the Belgian chemicals giant Solvay with his nascent plans for a solar-powered trip around the world in 2003, it was a homecoming of sorts: Company founder Ernest Solvay had backed the physics research of Piccard’s grandfather in 1920. “Before we got to specifics, we saw the values Bertrand’s project represented: Pioneering spirit, innovation, respect for the planet and for mankind,” said Claude Michel, Head of the Solvay Solar Impulse Project. “Those are the same values we live at Solvay.”

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