German adventurers, Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer, this week completed a gruelling 18-day, 3,000-mile drive across Australia using a wind-powered car.
The Wind Explorer was powered by an electric motor, which was able to recharge its battery overnight using a portable wind turbine, and when conditions allowed, a traction kite similar to those used by kite surfers.
| Wind Power | |
|---|---|
| Wind Explorer electric car under sail power.
|
|
| The carbon-fibre Greenbird land yacht: world’s fastest wind-powered vehicle British engineer, Richard Jenkins two years ago reached a speed of 126.1mph in a carbon-fibre land yacht.
|
|
| Trans-continental record attempts aside, kite power is not a practical option for cars, but it is being used with impressive results by cargo ship MV Beluga. A company called SkySails is developing a range of giant kites for use by modern, conventionally-powered freighters. SkySail kites, which can be as large as 320m2 are claimed to reduce a ship‘s fuel costs by 10- 35% on annual average, depending on wind conditions. MV Beluga saves an average of 50 tonnes of fuel each day when the sail is in use. |
0 Comments View now