Sanyo's Solar Parking Lots Charge Community Bikes Without Tapping the Grid
The future of community bike systems may not require much pedaling at all; Sanyo has just installed two "Solar Parking Lots" that serve as solar charging stations for 100 Eneloop electric hybrid bicycles in Setagaya, Tokyo. The carbon-neutral bike shelter both charges the bikes and provides low-power LED lighting from solar energy collected by panels on the roof. Based on Sanyo's own Smart Energy Systems technologies, the panels charge both the lithium ion batteries installed directly on the bicycles as well as an array of lithium ion-based storage cells that reserve power for those rainy days when sunlight is scarce. The storage arrays also include AC converters that can be used to power external devices, making the stations grid-independent sources of electricity in case of emergency. Eneloop bikes, you'll remember, are electric hybrids that do most of the work for you -- you still pedal to make them go, but electric...