A U.S. startup has emerged from stealth with the promise of enabling the aerospace industry to tap into the growing renewable energy market and diversify a business base built on passenger and cargo aircraft. (Subscription required)

In episode 9 of the Shift News podcast, hosts Robinson Meyer and Princeton University Professor and energy systems expert Jesse Jenkins talk to Radia’s CEO, Mark Lundstrom. They discuss why the world needs a bigger plane, how such a new aircraft gets licensed, and why massive wind turbines could be such a big deal for renewable electricity. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Radia has come up with a way to transport the biggest, most efficient wind turbines to inland sites that would otherwise be blocked by bridges, tunnels, and winding roads. Radia foresees that the availability of new wind turbines for onshore use will open up new opportunities for wind development. The company is already looking beyond the goal of simply serving as an airborne shipper of parts for wind farms.

There’s a global energy crisis and onshore wind farms are a potential growth option. Larger wind turbines produce more power than standard ones, but the components are too big to be transported by road. What’s the solution? A Colorado-based energy startup named Radia has an idea. It’s developing the biggest aircraft in aviation history. Meet the WindRunner™ airplane, whose mission will be to deliver gigantic 300-foot-long blades directly to wind farms.

Colorado company will partner with energy, wind turbine and aerospace leaders to manufacture WindRunner™, a unique cargo aircraft to enable turbines that enable consistent, cost-effective wind power for the grid, green molecules and commercial power users. Radia will expand onshore wind power by building the world’s largest aircraft to deliver big, efficient turbine blades where they couldn’t go before.

The bigger a wind turbine, the more energy it produces—which is why offshore wind farms have turbines with blades that are as long as a football field. But the largest equipment that exists today can’t be used on land because it’s too big to be delivered on roads. A startup called Radia is working on one potential solution: The largest plane ever made, designed specifically to carry the biggest wind turbine blades to new wind farms while running on sustainable aviation fuel.

Sitting at a mammoth 356ft long, the revolutionary WindRunner would be longer than the pitch at Wembley Stadium and could hold a whopping 12 times more load than a Boeing 747. Set to carry the huge and heavy blades of a wind turbine on board, the WindRunner™ could officially become the largest plane by length and cargo volume. Read more from The Sun's coverage of Radia.

The Wall Street Journal covers Radia, the unicorn startup that plans to use rocket science to overcome one of the wind power industry’s biggest hurdles with a giant cargo plane. (Subscription required.)

Radia CEO and Founder Mark Lundstrom will be among the technology and innovation speakers at CERAWeek 2024 by S&P Global 2024 – the world’s preeminent energy conference – to be held in Houston March 18-22. CERAWeek 2024: Multidimensional Energy Transition: Markets, climate, technology and geopolitics will explore strategies for a multidimensional, multispeed and multifuel energy transition – one that reflects different realities and timelines by region, technology, industry strategies, as well as the variety of social and political approaches and divergent national priorities in an increasingly multipolar world.