Wind-Powered Cell Phone Chargers in Japanese Taxis
by on 04. 1.05
Alright, so far only one taxi in Kyoto. Seems they stuck a wind-powered generator on the roof lights so you can charge your phone with alternative power while you ride. The practicalities haven’t quite been worked out: there’s no battery to hold the charge, so the system only works when the wind fan is actually moving. And the turbine could increase drag by a small degree, and hence increase fuel consumption. Yeah, it’d probably make more sense to charge off the car’s power, but it’s small ideas like this—ideas that are begging for refinement—that give us hope for a green future. Via transportTrends via Engadget ::Ecolo21 [by KK]
"the turbine could increase drag by a small degree"
If you're going to split hairs that much, why not think about how rough pavement or poorly inflated tires could interfere with gas mileage? :) I think this idea is great; it's passive, easy to implement, and the downsides are quite trivial.
Thermodynamics tells you that all you've done is take gasoline, burn it with loss to create wind, use the wind with loss to drive a generator, and use the generator with loss to charge a battery.
There is no possible way, ever, anyhow, that a refinement could possibly make this even as good as using the gasoline to directly power the phone.
There's nothing green about this. There's nothing efficient about this. It is a misuse of people's good intentions to sell a taxi ride.
Amen, AP. Put the windmill on a second-story wall in a narrow street that's a known wind tunnel, hook it up to the grid, and just charge the phone off the outlet.