A. Young people dig renewable energy, sustainability, and want to be a part of the solution. They know that an EV charging from the grid is actually using a mix of conventional not so clean and some clean electricity. An EV that's powered solely by the electric grid is indirectly contributing CO2 emissions!
B. Families (and everybody!) will appreciate an EV that is not a slave of the charging outlet. Being able to go longer without needing to stop for charging - that's everyone's dream.
Regardless of whether a vehicle is moving or is parked, the wind can be harvested using a vehicle-mounted wind turbine, to charge (top up) the vehicle battery.
The ideal solution should not depend on the motion of the vehicle (or the relative velocity) to harvest the wind energy - instead, it should work even when the vehicle is parked, and store wind energy as electric energy in the vehicle battery. This reduces the vehicle's dependency on the grid (and thus, the user's carbon footprint).
One (or two?) small turbine that mounts on the Buzz and charges its electric battery with free wind energy. Our team is iterating on designs, and we seem to have at least one that will efficiently harvest available wind power regardless of whether the Buzz is moving or is parked. The turbine is great for camping trips, since it can power the vehicle, users' devices AND a camping tent - thus appealing to the lifestyle choices of users, as well as their interest in sustainable energy.
The design and hinged mount optimize wind harvesting - whether moving or parked. For simplicity, we have shown just 1 turbine mounted on the roof. You can also imagine a two-turbine configuration (one on each side). Alternatively, just 1 turbine might suffice, on the roof's midline.
VW engineering will optimize the parameters of the DNA helix-inspired blades, creating algorithms that can optimize the turbine's 3D design to match each owner's driving patterns, wind index in parking spots, personalization choices, etc. Hence, several parts/aspects are suited for 3D printing.
We'll confer the Buzz with a level of self-sufficiency that other EVs & autonomous cars don't have today. The Buzz has a great range, but now we can reduce its dependency on the grid! In FUTURE: after the battery is full, a parked Buzz's turbine can even put excess electricity back into the grid.
This would not have been possible without you. So, thank you!
This is a really nice elaboration of the first draft. Cool you teamed up!
Of course this is a very advanced and innovative idea - not sure how much power it really can produce and how feasible this is to 3D-print, though.
I can imagine this would be quite hard to realize - let me check if this is too advanced for what we want too achieve in this project.
What if, for example, you wouldn't use the turbine for powering the car but charging a small battery people can use in the inside of the car for whatever electric device they need, that do not consume as much energy as an electric car.
Best,
Markus
Hi, Markus (and anyone else who is curious, or skeptical (!) about the presentation).
Currently, the electrical outlets /ports for charging personal devices, in almost all EVs (Buzz included), are tapping into the vehicle's electric system. So, instead of sending the wind turbine's electric output to a "small battery" that's separate from the vehicle's existing electric power system, we think it makes more sense to send that turbine output towards topping up the EVs existing battery. Did my slides give the impression that we expect to totally charge the Buzz with the turbine? That is not our intention or claim. But the turbine can definitely help top up the vehicle battery, thus extending the amount of time the battery lasts before the user needs to find an EV charging station. You might remember how some companies and DIYers have used in-car small solar panels to top up their batteries. Because even a small solar panel's small current x time can add up. Topping up with clean energy, for example during the time an EV is parked - that's what we are excited about.
Some day when a plugged-in EV has already reached full charge, perhaps (some day!) the turbine's excess energy can be routed into the grid - and that is our "blue sky" thinking.
Lastly, there seems to be concern that a small turbine cannot generate enough power. But, as I suggested in the presentation, design optimization can make a turbine quite efficient. For example, below I'm pasting the specs from an existing Antarctic V30 microturbine product, to stress on how small it actually is: Nominal Output: 15 watts @ 20ms-1 Rotor Diameter: 200mm Vane height: 310mm (yes, its just 31 centimeters tall!!) Output voltage: Suitable for 12V DC or 24V DC Start-up wind speed: Approximately 3~3.5ms-1 (5.82~7.82 knots) Cut-in wind speed: Approximately 4ms-1 (8.95 knots)
Thanks!
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