Urban Green Energy and GE introduce integrated wind-powered electric vehicle charging station
14 August 2012
Urban Green Energy (UGE) and GE unveiled the first integrated wind-powered electric vehicle charging station. The Sanya Skypump pairs UGE’s 4 kW vertical wind turbine with GE’s Durastation electric vehicle (EV) charging technology (Level 2, 30A) in a single unit, with all required electrical systems located within the tower.
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| Skypump. Click to enlarge. |
UGE developed and patented a dual axis design that eliminates the concern of premature bearing failure. UGE says that its turbines outperform the competition by spreading both horizontal and vertical forces along the length of the axis, resulting in increased durability and power production along with lower vibration and resistance.
Installed by UGE Iberia, the Spanish branch of New York-based Urban Green Energy, the wind-powered EV charging station is located at Cespa’s global headquarters near Barcelona. Cespa is the environmental services subsidiary of Ferrovial Servicios, the world’s largest private transportation infrastructure investor.
When the charging station is not in use, the UGE- 4K turbine will continue to operate and feed energy back into the grid, providing the local electric grid with additional renewable energy.
More Sanya Skypumps will be installed later this year in the US and Australia at shopping malls, universities and other locations.
Good idea for private out of town households. Is it (on the average) cheaper than equivalent solar panels?
Shopping malls, Universities, road side restaurants and rest stops, and similar size large customers would need much larger units.
Posted by: HarveyD | 14 August 2012 at 08:29 AM
This kind of thing makes me angry. It is done just for the image of being green, but is inefficient and an illusion. Electricity has the advantage of being able to be transported reasonably efficiently from far away by high voltage transmission lines. This means that electricity can be generated by large solar arrays, or large wind generators situated in areas with good wind, not next to the charger! I recently read that very large wind turbines are much more efficient than small ones, rendering this idea worse than useless, simply green-washing. Let's make the grid green with BIG projects like offshore wind farms, and then put EV chargers wherever they make sense where people live. (likely not offshore!)
Posted by: Opbrid | 14 August 2012 at 12:54 PM
Opbrid, You are correct. The numbers on this just do not add up. If the rating is 4 KW at say 25 mph, you will be doing well to get 1 KW average anywhere someone would want to live. This is just green wash.
Posted by: sd | 14 August 2012 at 02:48 PM