backtop

Print 40 comment(s) - last by johnsmith9875.. on Aug 17 at 10:28 AM
Turbine should be a big hit in California

The electric vehicle boom has thus far been more of a fizzle, but sales are slowly creeping upwards as the industry examines this approach to making good on fuel economy requirements.  One key aspect of making electric vehicles desirable to consumers is deploying public charging infrastructure so that drivers can charge their vehicles while travelling or at work.

There's been some interest in making these public chargers "green" by tapping into on-site alternative energy.  Thus far most efforts have focused on solar power.

But General Electric Comp. (GE) and Urban Green Energy (UGE) have come up with a new vertical-wind turbine powered charged dubbed "Sanya Skypump".  GE makes the base WattStation, which comes equipped with a touch screen, while UGE produces the turbine.

The turbine charger features dual-axis technology to combat premature bearing failure.  It produces up to 4 kW of power.

Sanya Skypower
The Sanya SkyPower [Image Source: UGE]

The first unit of the new alternative energy charger has been installed in outside Barcelona, Spain, and is designed to service company and government vehicles (consumer use is frowned upon).  
 

UGE and GE hope to bring the charger to shopping malls/plazas and university across the U.S. and Australia by the end of the year.  We're guessing this new "green" EV charger will be a big hit in eco-minded California, one of the few states with a significant plug-in and battery electric vehicle population.

Sources: Urban Green Energy, YouTube


Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
It won't work when needed most
By JDHack42 on 8/14/2012 2:31:36 PM , Rating: 3
CA has Spare the Air Days. These are when weather conditions allow for build up of smog, ozone, etc. Most of the time, it's because some stagnant air system has decided to plop itself over a large metro area and there is no wind. So when temps are soaring, air quality is declining, and EV's are needed the most, this green alternative isn't going to provide any power to charge batteries.




RE: It won't work when needed most
By Jeffk464 on 8/14/2012 3:05:03 PM , Rating: 2
like I said just put the power into the grid.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By CZroe on 8/14/2012 4:20:12 PM , Rating: 2
The grid transmits power. It does not store power.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Jeffk464 on 8/14/2012 5:27:58 PM , Rating: 3
Power plants produce electricity by demand right? So if you have renewables going you can take their full output and reduce fossil fuel output right? People already do this with home solar, you run the meter backwards when you are producing more then your using.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By kattanna on 8/15/2012 11:55:49 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
So if you have renewables going you can take their full output and reduce fossil fuel output right?


not really.

for solar the power companies can plan and adjust power plant outputs as the sun climbs and sets throughout the day as it predictably waxes and wanes.

wind..not so much. its so unpredictable that you must have power stations on standby, usually still burning those fossil fuels as the wind could die down at a moments notice. for a home user where it is connected to a battery system first to smooth out those valleys and peaks in production where the excess power is not feed back into the grid, sure. but to simply have thousands and thousands of home users directly connected to a grid where you can get sudden wind bursts that can overload the grid..no thanks


RE: It won't work when needed most
By toffty on 8/15/2012 2:34:46 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
The grid transmits power. It does not store power.


That's only because that's how it was done in the past. There are many ways to make the grid store power.

Some examples which are used around the world are:
-A station pumps air underground with access electricity and when electricity is needed, the air is released turning the fan (turbine)
-A station pumps water uphill with access electricity and lets the water flow back down when electricity is needed.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By CZroe on 8/14/2012 4:20:49 PM , Rating: 1
The grid transmits power. It does not store it.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Samus on 8/15/2012 1:53:48 AM , Rating: 4
You guys have no idea how an electrical grid works.

It doesn't have to store power. Power is constantly being used. If you are generating power and putting it back "into the grid" it simply means your neighbor is using the power you are generating.

In a perfectly calibrated system, your meter would tick backwards, and their meter would tick forwards. In reality the current state of grid technology requires the electric company to put a sub-meter on the generator, sometimes not even digital, and they credit you against your primary meter reading. This is how it works for me in Chicago with my aging, decade-old solar array that isn't even 20% efficient, but has more than paid for itself by now including the cost to repair from hail damage twice.

Now, wind is clearly superior in my opinion, and it wasn't really an option when I invested in my green roof 12 years ago.

Electrical supply companies don't want to be in the business of selling you power (and actually prefer you deal with a sub of electrical supply) as the real money is in power management and delivery. They don't care where the power comes from, they just care that you use their infrastructure to consume it. Look at your electric bill. Your kwh usage is probably half of what the overall expense is. The rest is in delivery, maintenance, meter reading, and taxes.

If people want to spend their own money on something like this, that's great. Everybody is happy. You, your neighbor, the electric company, everyone. But when I see these government subsidies for this stuff it really ticks me off, not because I didn't get any when I bought it, but because this really is a free-market affair, and the government has no place in subsidizing green technologies while they are signing grants left and right to the companies supplying them. That's just a double-f*@#-you to the tax-payer.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Paj on 8/15/2012 7:37:50 AM , Rating: 2
Interesting viewpoint. So despite supporting these technologies, you still dont support the government subsidising them?

Serious question - how do you feel about oil and farm subsidies?


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Reclaimer77 on 8/15/2012 12:43:36 PM , Rating: 1
Oil isn't "subsidized" by the Government. Why do you people keep repeating this lie? Yes oil companies qualify for tax breaks, but those are tax breaks ALL businesses can receive.

If it wasn't for Green subsidies, most of these companies would NOT exist. How does that honestly compare to oil companies, who profit in the billions without any Government support?

We use fossil fuels because they are incredibly viable, abundant, and profitable. Not because of some Government "subsidy".


RE: It won't work when needed most
By toffty on 8/15/2012 2:43:58 PM , Rating: 2
The biggest subsidy is the US's intervention in the Middle East. There's no reason any of our troops should be there because all they're doing now is really protecting the US’s oil interests - nation building is on the back burner (oil fields were the first thing fixed).


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Paj on 8/16/2012 4:50:30 AM , Rating: 3
A tax break is a form of subsidy.

Fossil fuels receive huge subsidies across the world - over 400 billion USD spent globally in 2010. This is part of the reason why fossil fuels are 'cheaper'.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By jeffkro on 8/15/2012 8:38:58 AM , Rating: 2
Wind is superior in Chicago.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By RufusM on 8/15/2012 9:10:04 AM , Rating: 2
But wind turbines will kill the birds. Won't someone think of the birds!! /s


RE: It won't work when needed most
By toffty on 8/15/2012 3:03:44 PM , Rating: 2
So if you lived back in the 1800's you would not have supported the Transcontinental Railroad which openned out the western US. In the 1950's you would not have supported the building of the interstate highway system. Throughout the 1900's you would not have supported subsidies for building coal power plants.

Pure free-market systems do not work; just like how pure communism does not work. All in all the US, Europe, and China are not very different with their capital systems. They're all hybrids both systems because neither alone works.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By toffty on 8/15/2012 2:38:21 PM , Rating: 1
That's only because that's how it was done in the past. There are many ways to make the grid store power.

Some examples which are used around the world are:
-A station pumps air underground with access electricity and when electricity is needed, the air is released turning the fan (turbine)
-A station pumps water uphill with access electricity and lets the water flow back down when electricity is needed.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By lennylim on 8/14/2012 9:23:45 PM , Rating: 2
Those days are also very sunny, so solar panels would work admirably on Spare the Air days. These would work on those cloudy / rainy days.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By FITCamaro on 8/14/2012 10:34:17 PM , Rating: 4
Solar + wind. Less than half the power at far more than twice the price!

Brilliant!


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Paj on 8/15/2012 7:45:25 AM , Rating: 1
You forgot that it costs far less to run, doesn't need fuel, allows for local generation, and doesn't produce emissions.

Do you just deny the need to even consider the environment?


RE: It won't work when needed most
By heffeque on 8/15/2012 9:41:12 AM , Rating: 2
Enveironment and health. They seem to have cost = 0 to him.

Either way, he seems to think that solar and wind are still expensive.

He's probably from the past and hasn't caught up with the latest improvements.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By jeffkro on 8/15/2012 8:42:31 AM , Rating: 2
Solar power has nowhere never the short term payback that you get from wind.


RE: It won't work when needed most
By Dukeajuke on 8/15/2012 9:18:03 AM , Rating: 2
What about adding a deployable charging mast directly to an electric vehicle? When you are parked you could simply deploy the charging mast which automatically unfolds the windmill fins..


By johnsmith9875 on 8/17/2012 10:24:09 AM , Rating: 2
And have have solar cells on the roof. Here in Oklahoma where it hit 113F this summer, it would charge up a car quite easily. We're a windy state too, even a tiny windmill would get some use.


I would rather hear the sound of the turbine
By Schmide on 8/14/2012 2:28:29 PM , Rating: 3
rather than that music everyone thinks in inspirational.




RE: I would rather hear the sound of the turbine
By Jeffk464 on 8/14/2012 3:04:07 PM , Rating: 3
Pointless, just put the electricity into the grid and pull electricity off the grid to charge cars or whatever.


By Rukkian on 8/15/2012 9:06:43 AM , Rating: 2
At that point you would be better off putting more efficient turbines somewhere else. I would assume that for their size, they are not near as efficient as the big ones.

The reason I think these would be useful is to put them up where there is no electrical hookups, however I do not think most people with full-ev go outside of the grid much, simply due to range.


Aren't verticle turbines
By spamreader1 on 8/14/2012 6:21:58 PM , Rating: 2
Less efficient than standard propeller driven turbines?




RE: Aren't verticle turbines
By jeffkro on 8/15/2012 8:48:42 AM , Rating: 2
More aesthetic I'm guessing


By Dr. Kenneth Noisewater on 8/15/2012 9:02:37 AM , Rating: 2
They operate at lower wind speeds and theoretically are less dangerous to birds. Also, they don't need to be built taller than the radius of one of its arms.


reality
By DockScience on 8/14/2012 3:29:54 PM , Rating: 2
What a pity that wind blows mainly at nights.

You can see in this California renewables realtime generation chart that wind collapses around 8am, just when these cars will need charging.

http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html




RE: reality
By jeffkro on 8/15/2012 8:46:22 AM , Rating: 2
Ideally you want an electric car to have the range to handle the majority of commute and then you charge at night.


Luddites Beware
By johnsmith9875 on 8/14/2012 4:03:38 PM , Rating: 2
Its long been known by NREL and other wind power researchers that the best winds come from offshore sources and they blow day and night.
The only problem with wind power is lack of vision, not lack of technology or wind availability.




RE: Luddites Beware
By Etsp on 8/14/2012 4:15:05 PM , Rating: 2
Lots of technical challenges for offshore wind farms.

Although, has anyone considered combining the tidal generators with wind turbines in the same unit? That might be able to consolidate some of the costs at least.


The world first.....
By BZDTemp on 8/14/2012 2:42:24 PM , Rating: 3
Right. Like no charging station ever before has been powered by the wind.

Lots of charging stations run on wind power only the wind flows through the electric grid on it's way to the car. Something that also ensures any surplus wind energy is used to do other things like say powering toasters, tennis ball machines and of course the computer I'm using to write this on.




Frowned upon?
By LBID on 8/14/2012 2:22:12 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
"consumer use is frowned upon"


Now why would that be? Seems like the goal would be to get as many people as possible using it, with maximum accessibility?




RE: Frowned upon?
By Reclaimer77 on 8/14/12, Rating: -1
House
By btc909 on 8/14/2012 3:25:36 PM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't mind having a smaller one or two of these on my house. "frowned upon" sounds like a nimby attitude. I would really like to give the finger at these $200 plus summer electric bills & I have my AC set at 79F.




I love it
By Souka on 8/14/2012 4:57:54 PM , Rating: 2
I love the design of these turbines...

I have a big pile of sneakers, with the laces tied together, ready to be tossed up into the turbine!

JK... I live in Washngton and wouldn't do that anyhow




Aesthetics
By johnsmith9875 on 8/17/2012 10:28:07 AM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately the biggest enemy will invariably all those people with OCD who hate the "Aesthetics" of windmills.

You know who they are, the same idiots who sit on Homeowners Association boards and dictate to you everything from the shape of your porchlight to the kind of bushes you can plant in your garden.

They will whine about these things because the destroy the harmony of life at least in their wretched little minds.




"It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that." -- Microsoft COO Kevin Turner











botimage
Copyright 2013 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki