Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered plane, landed in Myanmar on Thursday night as the latest leg of a round-the-world trip. The goal is to highlight clean energy.

Dozens of trees had to be cut down because of Solar Impulse 2 at the Mandalay International Airport for its giant mobile hangar and exhibition tent, said Taik Aung, the country’s director of air navigation and safety division. Large shrubs along the runway also needed to be trimmed to accommodate the plane’s 72-meter wing span.

The Impulse 2 has twelve scheduled stop-overs during its five-month journey. The pilots are Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg who are both Swedish. This aircraft is powered by more than 17,000 solar cells on its wings that recharge the plane’s batteries. Solar Impulse 2 is a single-seat, Swiss-made plane.

According to Soe Paing, a member of the plane’s local task force team Two other aircraft — an ATR 72 and Ilyushin 76 — are carrying equipment for the solar plane. Myanmar’s government was paying for the 20,000 gallons of fuel needed for the support planes on the Mandalay leg.

Solar Impulse left Varanasi in North India early Thursday after many weather delays and flew over the Bay of Bengal and reached Mandalay at 7:50 p.m. This flight has the attention of people everywhere who believe solar power is a future source of clean, renewable energy.

The Solar Impulse 2 is going to continue to Chongqing and Nanjing, China on Sunday. It then heads over the Pacific Ocean, landing in Hawaii and the U.S. mainland before flying over the Atlantic Ocean.

Information provided by ABC News