Might it be a good idea for Aptera to develop or partner to have a well integrated wind turbine? Perhaps, easily mounted to the vehicle when parked. There would be practical problems to solve of course like theft or damage. It would be worthwhile taking this on as an engineering challenge in my view. Thanks!
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A guy has a kickstarter on a low-speed wind turbine on kickstarter. His model is rather laughable and he is basically at the stage of building a prototype that would actually generate power. His 'model' is just demonstrating the concepts he thinks will work.
The ideal for connectivity would include V2H. A possible better connection would be with the folks mentioned in this article about the convergence of solar and EVs in green car reports.
@Ken Kobayashi Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure if that also includes the windy Great Lakes' coasts. I believe my point still stands: There are quite a few of us living where it's windy near the coast, & census.gov says the PERCENTAGE has been increasing. Plus there are windy inland areas as well.
If there's not enough wind where you live/work to justify free power from an Aptera wind kit, don't buy that option. Just like you wouldn't buy the solar options if you can only park underground at work & in a garage at home.
With names like oceandragon and kiteboarder on this thread, maybe it's not the best place to have some healthy skepticism about wind power 😅
@OceanDragon I was referring to 10+ kw systems capable of powering your house. That's a nice wind turbine system on the boat. How many kwh per day can it produce? Are you happy with the investment?
@Fin T. Just like solar, wind power may make more sense for a car parked in various locations on the street than for a stationary home. Either way, any "inefficient" turbulent breeze would still be free miles to drive an Aptera IF we're offered that OPTION which you might be wise to avoid, much like it might be wise to avoid adding the solar options if you park underground &/or live so far north that they're "terrible for efficiency".
@Fin T. I don't need to "drive a quarter of a mile inland". I LIVE a full mile from the beach. 40% of the US population lives closer. That distance is FOUR TIMES your "quarter of a mile inland".
Yet it's usually pretty breezy here at ground level, often when the sun is low or even down. Same goes for my friend's place at a similar distance from the beach.
It is especially breezy at street parking, where the wind funnels between nearby buildings that you'd think would "block" the wind. I think it's called something like "Bernoulli effect".
@Fin T. Much more practical than solar, on windy nights. Also adding to solar on windy days, so overall maybe a good option for all of us living in those "miniscule portions". That makes me wonder about the vast majority of people living in the "miniscule portion" that is the coast, which is generally a windy area.
I love the idea of wind powering things too. Unfortunately, low to ground wind turbine installations (below 50 ft) are only practical in a minuscule portion of the global land mass. Might work for future Aptera boat designs :-)
Behold! Fear not!!
So, for $160, you can generate 150W of power by pedalling. No chair included, but a regular foldable chair will do. You just put this on the ground and go to town. If you have passenger with you, grab 2, put them to work and generate 300 W. 😆 Enjoy! Here's the sauce Enjoy!
You have misguided yourself.
I'm not suggesting that that any of the vehicles fundamental design change to accommodate a turbine. And I only mention Aptera's involvement because they should be considering on-board energy generation as core to their technology stack. So there is value in a "well-integrated" solution by which I mean not just a 3rd party add on which would come with some compromises. The ROI comments above are nonsense.
It definitely is worth it....a wind generator costs between $150 to 200 and provides an additional 24 Volt source. The nice thing is that the Aptera's own charge controller has a 24 volt DC input already designed into it. That is how it handles the input from the car's built in solar panels. The wind generator will just plug into that same input as a parallel circuit. We have hope. I myself would attach the wind generator with a neodymium magnet mount taking advantage of the fiberglass roof. We have roof mount on the Mercedes which attaches with 6 inch self pumping suction cups which is an alternative. It is strong enough to mount a bike. Glad you are forward thinking.
Hey Dragon, cool! I too am near the water. I am, of course, not privy to all their design and engineering choices and financial plans and so cannot say whether it's "worth it" or not for them to put effort into producing a wind turbine unit. For me though, the most interesting property of the Aptera project is that it is a vehicle that can move around a decent amount using power generated on-board. In fact, I was surprised to learn that this fact is not what excited those involved to build this in the first place, it came as sort of a surprise after someone did some calculations.
Hi Mark, I for one would be interested in that option. A small 800 watt wind generator will charge about 4 times as much as would the solar panels (depending upon the configuration and amount of sunlight). I live on the beach where we many times have a nice gentle sea breeze throughout the day and night. Some of our summer days may have an overcast. I may not opt to have it standing on the car, but to have the wind generator on the eave of the house and plugged into the same port which could be used for external solar panels and wind generators would be fantastic. It will increase the self charging capability of the car to be able to self charge both night and day. Many of the small and medium sized boats docked in the harbor have both solar panels and wind generators, so it is a way of life out here. Self generated green energy. May not be for everybody, but I would certainly be interested.
Sorry, I don't follow your post. Obviously it would cost engineering time and money to conceive and integrate a unit that works well. I doubt that they can divert any resources away from getting the first vehicles out the door. Likely to look at later. What's important here is on-board energy production. There are many conceivable ways of doing that. Rotating a motor backwards for example or converting photon hits into current. Wind turbines are a commodity energy generating device nowadays. Relatively compact designs can generate anywayere from 500 to 2kw. Where and when you decide to use energy-generating methods would depend on any considerations you need to make (i.e.. theft??) vs. how badly you want power.
I assume you mean to be used to charge the battery while parked if no sun or little sun. I am not sure this would be a features that would generate a lot of market movement, or at least enough generated revenue to cover the cost of engineering, development, and integration with the current design. Perhaps a third party add on.