This month, A1 Co., Ltd. and BIES Ltd. opened the first set of solar-powered electric car charging stations across Sofia, Bulgaria. Built as simple structures, each station simply uses solar panels to collect solar energy and a special module for electric cars to connect to the batteries. While the number of electric cars in Bulgaria are still very few, according to experts, a boom in the purchase of electric vehicles is expected this year — particularly due special incentives that will be given by the Bulgarian government.
The station is one of the components of urban public transport system independent or semi-collective Cristal. This site built within the urban space allows the provision, the distribution, the parking and recharging energy vehicles. Users can make their reservation with the terminal or if they have pre-booked by phone (for example), go directly to the vehicle which has been designated by the system operator.
It’s actually the world’s first national charging network for electric cars. That may sound a bit grand, for something quite wonderfully simple – a series of charging posts installed at motorway services up and down the country. Charging stations, for electric cars, that are easy to access and free to use (yes free). Enabling Britain’s electric car drivers to drive the length and breadth of the country – with all the convenience of simply pulling into a motorway service station to top up. We’re pretty chuffed with it, truth be told.
The battery powered car or electric vehicle holds promise for weaning the world away from the gasoline burning engines that cause over 2300 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf electric cars have made impressive debuts increasing the sales from 15,000 to 20,000 units in their first year and these companies are planning to increase the output to 50,000 cars in 2012. Other EV manufacturers are also on the scene and the hybrids such as the Toyota Prius already hold an impressive niche. This would drive the utilities to dot the highways and city roads with battery charging stations, much like we see gasoline pumps all around.
Electric vehicle charging stations have taken the world by storm lately – from Ford’s home hook up system to Ikea’s new parking lot charging stations. Now Inhabitat is proud to announce the brand new Sanya Skypump – which harnesses the power of the wind and sun to charge your EV! Developed by Urban Green Energy and GE Energy Industrial Solutions, the Sanya Skypump sets EV owners free from reliance upon the energy grid. Urban Green Energy gave us an exclusive first look at this exciting energy-generating EV charger – hit the jump to see how it works!
ULVAC Inc recently announced that it has created and launched a very innovative battery-charging system for power-assisted bicycles by putting together a solar generator, a small wind power generator and a battery charger.
Called “Hybrid Cycle Pit,” the power-assisted bicycle charging station will be installed beside the baseball field in Chigasaki City Park, Japan. It will be into operation starting July 10, 2011.
The charging mechanism of the Hybrid Cycle Pit is composed of a small 1.0 kW wind power generator (upwind, horizontal axis, propeller type), a 1.6KW solar power generator and a battery pack. The last one contains a discharging and charging control system, a lithium-ion back-up battery and a battery charger.
The battery charging system is equipped with eight solar panels on the canopy of the battery charger in which bicycles are placed.
The Hybrid Cycle Pit is capable of charging a total of ten electric bicycles a day and up to five bicycles at once.