Brazil develops self sufficent street lights powered by wind and sun

Brazil develops self sufficent street lights powered by wind and sun

www.meionorte .com

The brazilian mechanical enginner, Fernandes Ximenes, owner of the company Gram-Eollic, developed the first self sufficent lamp post, powered 100% by the wind and the sun.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I will translate below the most important parts of the article, which is in portuguese:

With models ranging from 36 feet to 54 feet high (made of steel), this intricate invention, which is called Produtor Independente de Energia(PIE, or Independent Producer of Energy), calls attention for its aesthetics. It has a small scaled airplane on the top of the lamp post.(You can see the image on the link of the news)



Made of carbon fiber and a special alluminum - the same matterial used in commercial airplanes -, the 9 feet long airplane model is, in reality, the main ingredient for this successful recipe.

Ximenes says that the format of the airplane wasn't chosen by accident. The choice was made by its aerodynamics, which faccilitates the capture of sun rays and wind.

"Not only that, with the shape of the airplane on top, the lamp post remains safer. It has two complementary power sources(sun and wind) and it can be installed anywhere in the country(Brazil) or in the world.", says the inventor.

Not every lamp post needs the airplane model on top of it. Every lamp post with the airplane model, called PIE, is treated as a generator and can power up another 2 regular lamp posts, besides itself.

To use the maximum capacity of the invention, it is advised to use LED lights in the lamp posts, which are more lumminous, with higher durability and more ecologically correct.

When fully powered, the PIE has an autonomy of 7 days. In the case of blackout in the city, the PIE lamp posts remain lighted for 7 days, while regular batteries in lamp posts today only work for 70 hours.

How the idea was born

The inventor explains he had this idea on 2001, during a major blackout in Brazil. In that time, his researches showed it was possible to provide alternative solutions to the energy chaos. It was a hard and perilous journey, for the lacking of financial incentives and he had to pay everything from his own pocket, besides having to overcome the pessimists who didn't believe in him or his idea.

Today, he has the full support from the government of the state of Ceara, in Brazil. It's been 7 years of tests and adjustments and now the technology is ready to spread away from the pilot area to the streets, parks and highways.

There you go, folks. His invention is already running on the state of Ceara, in Brazil. According to the news, his invention can create an economy to the state of Ceara of USD 10,000 per kilometer, or USD 6,000 per mile.

Of course, the economy on every state or country will vary with how much the electric energy costs in each place. Besides being more economical, it is eco-friendly.

www.meionorte .com
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 22-6-2010 by henriquefd]

reply to post by henriquefd


What a great invention if this was replicated throughout the world just think of how much everyone could save both financially and enviromentally.

Governments like people using energy. They get to tax it. These types of inventions need to go viral in local communities. If I needed some outdoor lights I might buy these as well.

Originally posted by ExPostFacto
Governments like people using energy. They get to tax it. These types of inventions need to go viral in local communities. If I needed some outdoor lights I might buy these as well.

Not governments in Brazil. Every city I know is always searching for alternatives to reduce costs with energy.

I got Fernando Ximenes phone and talked to him for more than an hour. He says he just got a visit from the government of Argentina. This guy is busy as a bee.

We are thinking about hiring him to create a project for one of our bus companies. We have an electric bill of 5,000 USD a month and it would be graet to reduce to practically ZERO.

5,000 USD a month is 60,000 USD a year. It's almost like getting one bus for free every year.

I'm no electric engineer but doesnt' this statement seem like a little bald looking at the size of the propeller ?

*Translated from www.meionorte.com...

Technically, the plane's wings house solar cells that capture infrared and ultraviolet rays through the silicon (chemical element that is the main component of glass, cement, ceramics, most of semiconductor components and silicones), transforming them into electrical energy (up to 400 watts), which is stored in a battery posted a few feet below. Delivering the same task of generating energy, are the propellers of the plane. Just as the nacelles (blades) of big windmills scattered around the coast of Ceará, energy (up to 1000 watts) is generated from these blades spin.

then the battery life seems also somewhat stretched, at least assuming these lights have a reasonable strength... Natrium pressure lamps used sometimes are much brighter than LED's that I know with low powerconsumption.

I hope this doesn't get bought and shelved. Another way this could be used is to replace every home or business nightime security lights. That would have to be billions of dollars in savings every year.

I'm glad to see an invention like this coming to light! When I did some research on wind power I thought it would be neat to power street lights via wind, but solar too, hmm... hadn't thought about that.

Something I would want to know is that how much incoming solar radiation that portion of Brazil gets along with its average yearly wind speed. Those are important pieces of data in seeing if this could be transplanted other places in the world.

Also a power curve showing how much this system could produce at different wind speeds/cloud cover would be useful if anyone is thinking of getting one of these.

Not only they will lower the energy bill but the infrastructure and the installation costs.
No more copper cables, transformers, etc.
Also, in the event of a blackout, the public lights will continue to work.... I wonder if they are going to use that technology on traffic lights too.

Great invention. Hope they make it available worldwide. Well done brazil inventing something beneficial to the world..

Three cheers for Brazil! They have smart people there. Let's get some of those here in Arizona to light the way to the land of milk and honey.

Originally posted by Sir Solomon
I'm glad to see an invention like this coming to light! When I did some research on wind power I thought it would be neat to power street lights via wind, but solar too, hmm... hadn't thought about that.

Something I would want to know is that how much incoming solar radiation that portion of Brazil gets along with its average yearly wind speed. Those are important pieces of data in seeing if this could be transplanted other places in the world.

Also a power curve showing how much this system could produce at different wind speeds/cloud cover would be useful if anyone is thinking of getting one of these.

Almost every city in Brazil has sunlight for 12 hours every day, varying 1 hour more or less, depending on the time of the year.

Dunno about winds. When talking to Fernando on the phone, he couldn't give me an estimate on how much it would cost to put his technology in our company garage, which has an area of 100 yards by 300 yards. He said he needed to go there to check on the sunlight and the wind and create a project specific for that area.

So, we are considering it. It does sound interesting. Will talk to thim on the phone a few more times, though.

We are told constantly by the media that no companies, countries, or people are able to afford investing in technology like this. I guess this proves that old oil-tycoon hogwash different.