World's First Wind Powered Electric Vehicle Recharging Station Opens

Vertical Wind Turbine at the world's first wind powered electric vehicle recharging station.
The UGE-4K wind turbine of the Sanya Skypump rotates almost silently around its vertical pole axis, at less than 38 decibels at a rated wind speed of 12m/s (26 miles per hour) and can survive windspeeds of 123 mph.

The world's first wind powered electric vehicle recharging station has been opened near Barcelona in Spain.  Offering a completely green solution to recharging electric cars and other vehicles,the station uses a combination of an innovative 4 kilowatt vertical wind turbine,called UGE-4K, made by Urban Green Energy and a charging unit known as Durastation from General Electric.  These are integrated as a single unit, with all of the electrical systems in the turbine's tower itself. Together this combo-unit is known as a Sanya Skypump.

The station is located at the global headuarters of Cespa, the environmental services arm of Ferrovial which is the biggest investor in private transport infrastructure in the world  Later in 2012 it is intended that more Sanya Skypumps will be located in Australia and in the USA at universities, shopping centers and other places. 

Nick Blitterswyk, the the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Urban Green Energy has said that enquiries about the Sanya Skypump have come in from organisations throughout the world who are interested in sustainability. He describes the unit as one of the rare devices which allow companies to show their responsibility toward the planet whilst also giving a truly valuable service. 

General Electric (or GE as they seem to like being called) is an avid advocate of electric cars, and plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles before the year 2015 is out, to be used as company cars and to be leased out via its Fleet Services to corporate customers. The company intends to introduce a whole range of electric car charging units throughout Europe to enable both home and business users a choice of simple to use and versatile systems to make electric cars a solid reality for our future lives.

Have fun piecing together a Zap Xebra electric car jigsaw puzzle at Springfrog.