Wind and Solar Tower: the charging station that will be powered by wind and sun

Electric vehicle charging stations are usually powered by the electrical grid. At other times, they may have solar panels that provide solar energy as a priority. What is rarer is for these charging stations to be powered by energy from wind generators. These are more complicated to install and require more complex maintenance, so they are not an option to consider.

But that could change soon, since a proposal from the United States may create an option to turn the force of the wind into a source of energy to power the chargers. This is the invention proposed by Jim Bardia, an inventor from Connecticut, which has been named Wind and Solar Tower and has begun the process of becoming a reality.

One of the drawbacks of electrical energy from a wind generator is that the wind must reach a minimum speed to move the blades. With Bardia’s proposal, electricity can begin to be generated at wind speeds from 8 km/h. The solution is to use a tower-shaped design with a vertical-axis turbine.

With this design, the wind does not need to blow at a very high speed. In addition, the installation can withstand winds of up to 120 km/h, so the range of use is quite wide. Furthermore, at the top of the tower solar panels will be installed, which will also generate energy to power the station’s chargers.

Electricity is generated by the rotation of the central shaft, which has a levitation shaft with permanent magnets. In this way friction is eliminated and, as a result, the efficiency of the patented model reaches 92.5% efficiency. For comparison, the efficiency of a traditional wind generator ranges between 50 and 60%.

Features of the Wind and Solar Tower

The tower is capable of generating around 234,154 kW per year. More than enough for users to charge their vehicles without any power supply problems. And now the doubt arises. If there is no wind and no sun, how will this clean energy tower solve the problem?

According to the inventor, the tower will also include a battery solution that will store the energy produced by both systems, with a capacity of up to 1 MW, so even if the situation lasts for some time, there will be no problems. Even so, it would be difficult for both circumstances to coincide, that is, for there to be neither sun nor wind.

The first production model proposed by Bardia is 18 metres tall and 13.5 metres wide. The solar panels cover an area of 140 square metres. The installation can be carried out at any service station, as well as in other public service buildings and even for private use. It is expected that once the first towers are installed, a smaller version may be available for domestic use.

As for the price, each charging station is expected to cost around 80,000 dollars, so with six fast chargers the total cost will be 480,000 dollars. We hope to see it in operation soon and find out whether it is a good way to obtain clean energy for electric vehicle charging points.