ULVAC (Ultimate in Vacuum), a vacuum technology company, has declared its intentions to develop a ‘Hybrid Cycle Pit’ next to the Baseball field in Chigasaki City Park.
It is a power-assisted cycle charging station combined with a wind power and solar power generator as renewable power sources and a battery pack to power charge the power assisted cycles in the park.
The ‘Hybrid Cycle Pit’ kept ready for opening in July this year has a 1.0 kW wind power generator and a 1.6 kW solar power generator and a battery pack to store the generated power. The wind turbine included in the system is an upwind, propeller type and horizontal axis turbine and the solar power generator incorporates eight solar modules and installed over the canopy of the charger. The battery pack includes a lithium-ion secondary battery, a control system to manage the charging and discharging operations and a battery charger.
The power generated by the solar and wind facilities will be stored in the secondary battery. The clean energy using ‘Hybrid Cycle Pit’ will have the capability to charge five power-assisted cycles when fully charged and will charge a total of 10 bicycles every day.
The company has installed a similar system at Tsuruminenishi Community Center in Chigasaki City and it is functioning from April 2011.
Source: http://www.ulvac.co.jp/eng/