Wind & solar tower charges electric cars during load-shedding

Staff on September 15, 2023

A hybrid power station working solely by wind and sun, the Wind & Solar Tower (WST), had its global unveiling at this year’s Detroit motor show.

The tower is a featured attraction at the show which runs from September 13—15.

The automated 1:18 scale model demonstrates how clean, off-grid power can charge electric vehicles (EVs) in a way that is cleaner and more efficient than anything now available. A full-size tower operated seamlessly and flawlessly for five years, even surviving two hurricanes, said Jim Bardia, inventor of the device.

The tower combines two infinitely renewable power sources — wind and sun. The commercial-scale towers are for charging when motorists are away from home and also provide the comfort of lessening range anxiety. As they require no connection to the grid, towers can be placed almost anywhere for public access

“The Detroit Auto Show is one of the most influential annual automotive events in the world and a showcase for emerging technologies such as the Wind & Solar Tower,” said Bardia. “With its vertical axis wind turbine, frictionless levitation hub and self-cleaning/self cooling solar panel, the tower generates prodigious electrical output on a small footprint, making it a compelling addition to EV charging choices.”

Unlike other charging systems, the tower can function independently of the grid or be supplemented by the grid.

“The US electric grid needs strengthening because it is being asked to deliver far more energy than before,” said Bardia. “But we can’t spend billions of dollars to build additional power plants that will increase pollution by burning more fossil fuels. Using more wind, solar and hydroelectric power is the key to survival of our grid and the continuation of the comfortable lives we’ve come to enjoy.”

He quoted a study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory which determined that the electricity used during an average 30-minute full charge of an EV at a level-3 DC fast charger is the same amount of electricity needed to power 50 homes.

“With federal rules calling for a high level of EV sales, it’s obvious we don’t, or won’t, have the power to charge the electrics. Without significant infrastructure changes, utilities will burn more fuel to power today’s electric plants or build more dirty plants to try to come close to generating the amount of electricity needed. Both of these are expensive, dirty and backward solutions.”

These two modes of generating emission-free electricity combine for 252kW and can charge an EV at level-4 with 380kW at 1,000v, demonstrating that “clean” charging does not have to compromise performance. Up to a megawatt of battery storage can be integrated. The owner of a tower doesn’t pay for electricity, thus eliminating a major cost of conventional units.

The tower employs a vertical axis wind turbine that catches wind from all directions. Topping the airfoil blades is a rotating circular solar panel that is self-cleaning, thus eliminating dust, soil and bird droppings to maximise solar energy reaching the cells.

Source: TimesLIVE, by Motoring Reporter

Off-The-Grid, Solar And Wind EV Charger To Make Debut At Detroit Auto Show

Staff on September 15, 2023

The Wind & Solar Tower generates electricity from both the sun and a vertical axis windmill, and will help supply EVs with the enormous amount of power they need.

The aptly named Wind & Solar Tower EV charging station is set to make its world debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week. An automated 1:18 scale model of the tower be on display at the Plug and Play Startup Arena from September 13-15.

“The Detroit Auto Show is one of the most influential annual automotive events in the world and a showcase for emerging technologies like The Wind & Solar Tower,” said the inventor of the tower, Jim Bardia. “With its vertical axis wind turbine, ‘frictionless’ levitation hub, and self-cleaning/self cooling solar panel, The Tower generates prodigious electrical output on a small footprint, making it a compelling addition to EV-charging choices.”

The Wind & Solar Tower collects electricity from both the wind and the sun to generate enough power to charge EVs. Capable of working without any connections to the wider power grid, Bardia suggests that they will be a vital step in the move toward the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

“The U.S. electric grid needs strengthening because it is being asked to deliver far more energy than ever before,” Bardia said. “But we can’t be spending billions of dollars to build additional power plants that will increase pollution by burning more fossil fuels.”

The company cites a study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that suggest that the average 30-minute Level 3 DC fast charging session uses as much electricity as 50 homes. With accelerating demand for the new-energy vehicles, it concludes that a station that can generate its own electricity could help meet demand.

It says that since Wind & Solar Towers don’t need to be connected to the grid, they are ideal for remote locations, and can be installed anywhere space is sufficient. Meanwhile, the vertical axis windmill can catch the wind wherever it’s coming from.

The station is capable of charging vehicles at rates of up to 380 kW and 1,000 volts. A full-size test tower has been operating for five years, in which time it has survived two hurricanes.

“Only renewable energy can provide EV charges without stressing the grid and dirtying the air,” Bardia concludes. “Fortunately, ‘clean’ charging is a choice. Sooner or later, emission-free charging will become standard – and the sooner that happens, the better for our grid and our health.”

Source: Cars Scoop, by Sebastien Bell

Wind And Solar Tower EV Charging Station To Debut At Detroit Auto Show

Staff on September 15, 2023

In the race to transition to all-electric powertrains, the question of where the electricity will come from is often pushed aside, leading to fears that the supposedly clean EVs of the future will in fact rely on carbon-producing fossil fuel power stations when it comes time to plug in at a charging station. To that end, new and innovative renewable energy solutions are needed to ensure the EV transition has a positive impact on emissions. Now, a new hybrid power generation system that utilizes both wind and solar energy will make its debut at the 2023 Detroit Auto Show.

Framed as the world’s only hybrid power station, the Wind and Solar Tower incorporates a vertical axis wind turbine capable of utilizing wind from any direction, which is paired with a rotating, circular solar panel. This combo is capable of providing energy in a variety of weather conditions, and is not required to be connected to the broader energy grid, making it a good choice for remote areas. In addition, the solar cells are self-cleaning, upping the efficiency that much more. The new system can be integrated with an EV charging station.

A 1:18 scale model of the Wind and Solar Tower will be on display at the 2023 North American International Auto Show (better known as the Detroit Auto Show) in conjunction with the Plug and Play Startup Arena at Automobili-D. According to the company that developed the Wind and Solar Tower, a full-sized tower was built and operated for five years, supposedly surviving two hurricanes during that time. The combination of solar and wind power generation can provide 252 kilowatts, serving as a charging station with Level 4 capabilities at 380 kilowatts and 1,000 volts. The charging station can also include up to a megawatt of battery storage.

“With present federal rules calling for a high level of EV sales, it’s obvious we simply don’t, or won’t, have the power to charge the electrics,” said the inventor of The Tower, Jim Bardia. “Without significant infrastructure changes, utilities will burn more fuel to power today’s electric plants or build more dirty plants to try to come close to generating the amount of electricity needed. Both of these are expensive, dirty and backward solutions.”

Source: GM Authority. by Jonathan Lopez

From the World’s Only Generator Run by a Combination of Pollution-Free Wind and Sun Power

Jim Trainor on February 28, 2022

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 – The technology to provide wind- and solar-powered, pollution-free fast charging for six EVs is available today, thanks to the Wind & Solar Tower.

But don’t think for a minute this happened overnight without a great deal of work and the expertise of an entire development team.

In fact, work on the Wind & Solar Tower began when inventor, Jim Bardia, was researching renewable energy for a friend’s farm, discovered that existing turbine technology could not make small-wind (under 100 kW) production in an economic manner.

After decades of experience in design, engineering and manufacturing custom vehicles, prototypes, armored cars and race cars, Bardia sensed an opportunity to improve the efficiency of a legacy wind design.

So, over the next few years, Bardia and the development team engineered and validated a number of innovations that corrected years of performance and operational limitations inherent in conventional vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) designs. He built his first model that was in service for five years and survived two hurricanes.

Bardia’s experience in racing, where efficiency is crucial to success and often marks the difference between victory and defeat, proved invaluable. In fact, his team consisting of motorsports friends, associates and colleagues proved to be just the right folks to help with engineering, prototyping, and validating his Tower design.

Patented Innovations
As in race car engineering, the underlying design philosophy of the Wind & Solar Tower™ focuses on strength, friction reduction, redundancy, and ease of assembly and service. In fact, Bardia’s innovations resulted in five domestic and international patents on multiple aspects of the Tower’s design in 29 patent classifications.

agnetic Levitation Bearing Virtually Eliminates Friction
The key patented component in improving efficiency of VAWTs is the floating-bearing levitation hub. The hub, at the heart of the Tower, uses powerful permanent magnets that eliminate performance and reliability issues by terminating static and dynamic loads and their associated friction. Due to magnetic repulsion, moving parts are never in contact. Along with friction reduction, this feature also increases the electrical output curve.

Magnetic Levitation Bearing

Multi-speed Sequential Gearbox Maximizes Wind Utilization
Another patent feature is the digitally-controlled, multi-speed sequential gearbox that vastly improves output over a broader range of wind speeds with a lower startup speed than conventional machines. In fact, the Tower can generate electricity in winds as low as 5 mph, can efficiently generate electricity in wind gusts, and can generate electricity in sustained winds as high as 75 mph, features not commonly possible on legacy VAWT and horizontal-axis turbines.

Multi-speed Sequential Gearbox

Modular Tower Architecture
The Tower features a patented modular architecture for ease in assembly and service that assembles much like Lego® blocks. This modularity also allows key components to be housed within the Tower in easily replaceable plug-and-play modules. This aspect of the design eliminates field servicing because a faulty module can simply be removed and returned to the factory for repair or replacement.

Modular Tower Architecture

Self-cleaning Solar Panels Dramatically Multiply Output
To dramatically increase electrical output, a second mode of electricity generation was added to the wind-driven capability – solar panels. But these were not typical panels as the team designed and patented the large, self-cleaning arrays on top of the Towers. These panels increase the electrical output of the Tower by up to 45 percent over wind-only generation. The self-cleaning design eliminates performance deterioration and extra maintenance caused by dirt buildup and bird droppings, for example, which degrades performance in conventional solar panels.

Self Cleaning Solar Panel

The Wind & Solar Tower™ generating system has evolved dramatically into a self-powered, high-capacity electric vehicle charging system that operates without adding to grid load. The WST generates 169,000 kilowatt hours of non-polluting electricity per year, enough to deliver more than 600,000 miles of pollution-free driving per single Tower.

The Tower can charge six vehicles simultaneously and generate enough electricity to charge more than 8,400 electric vehicles a year (at a 20 Kw charge) all from clean, renewable energy generated on site. The Tower has the capacity to store electricity in a 1,000 kW battery array while a grid connection can divert surplus energy to the grid or add power to charge more vehicles. Regardless of operational mode, the WST is the lowest-cost electricity producer.

The U.S. electric grid is not prepared to generate the upcoming need for fast-charging the growing EV fleet. Today, more than 60 percent of America’s grid power is generated by burning fossil fuels. The Wind & Solar Tower is a practical, economic, environmentally clean solution to preventing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from EV charges powered by the conventional grid.

Also available on-line here: https://newspressusa.com/publicReleaseView/72306