Zerocarbonista

The Wind Car is on its way

Filed under: Transport — dale September 15, 2008 @ 10:11 am

Work started in earnest on our wind powered car about 6 weeks ago. We’re making good progress, close to plan and budget so far.

Here’s a short video showing our progress so far:


Should be posting one of these a month now as we count down to the day we get this ‘wind powered car’ on the road.

Our first focus was the batteries - where to put them to keep the weight in the car in the right place in terms of centre of gravity and front/rear weight distribution. And how to house them so that we can keep them physically restrained but control their temperature during charging and discharging and protect them from the elements.

We’ve also been working on a ‘transmission box’ to sit at the rear of the car between the wheels. It’s not a gearbox as such just something to slow down the rotational speeds of the motors a bit, to make them more suitable for driving car wheels, and handle reverse as well, a useful consideration….

And we’ve got a transparent rear boot planned so we can show off all this techno stuff, Ferrari style. That could look pretty cool.

We need a name though (’a hook’ as they say in those Orange cinema ads, which I love).

Best we’ve come up with yet really is the E type or the Zero.

Suggestions welcome.

Cheers.

48 Comments »

  1. Good to hear that things are moving for the electric car.

    WRT the name - there is a form in Tai Chi called ‘Wind blows lotus leaf’ - I am not sure if the translation of the phrase would work as ‘a hook’ but the concept appeals to me :)

    Comment by nommo — September 15, 2008 @ 10:31 am

  2. What about the ‘Aeolus 1′ (the god of winds)?

    Comment by Will — September 15, 2008 @ 2:02 pm

  3. Very interested in your batteries! Zebra? We could have some tech 4 you!
    Jules

    Comment by Jules — September 15, 2008 @ 11:56 pm

  4. Can’t wait to see it.

    Erm ..

    “Vortex”

    “Infinity” - as in infinite speed, to infinity and beyond or infinite fuel! .. Not finite like oil! :)

    Comment by Chris — September 16, 2008 @ 12:04 am

  5. combination of Hurricane and electronic…great project lads, all the best! John A.

    Comment by Hurrelectron — September 16, 2008 @ 12:16 am

  6. What about Carbonada, carbon and nada, or the Bonada Car.

    BTW, of course when using/choosing this name, I think I’m at least entitled to one such a bonada car.

    Comment by alexander peijnenborgh — September 16, 2008 @ 12:36 am

  7. This is an awesome idea, best of luck with the project.

    What about the Spark (or Sparc) for the name? Or maybe a variation of Kaze, Japanese for wind.

    Comment by DB — September 16, 2008 @ 4:52 am

  8. How about the LEVANT = french word for wind, I think.

    Comment by Ivan — September 16, 2008 @ 8:46 am

  9. The Ecotricity “gusto”

    (as in a gust of wind)

    or the ‘Mistral’

    (as in the South of France)

    or ‘eddy’

    (as in fluid dynamics, also makes the car sound very friendly)

    last but not least ’shock wave’

    (again fluid dynamics, but it’s also what the car industry needs)

    Comment by Ben — September 16, 2008 @ 8:55 pm

  10. This is such a great project! I would love to share this on my website to help drive more attention, but its not embeddable at the moment, will there be a youtube copy up soon? As thats the best.

    Comment by Jared — September 17, 2008 @ 10:41 am

  11. Hi Jared,

    The youtube version is available now… (in much lower quality and using http of course ;-))

    Comment by paul — September 17, 2008 @ 10:52 am

  12. Awesome! thanks for that, now I can share it with more people :-)

    Comment by Jared — September 17, 2008 @ 10:56 am

  13. Thanks for all the name suggestions guys, there’s some good ideas in there, keep em coming.

    Other names we once thought of we’re Zephyr, which is another one of those wind names but also quite a famous Ford model (for those old enough to remember) - and Z car, another historical nod to something (cop program on TV when I was a kid) and also gets the Zero in there, kind of.

    Cheers.

    Comment by dale — September 18, 2008 @ 1:34 pm

  14. I am inspired by projects like these.

    We are currently working on converting a car ourselves, at http://www.miamiEVproject.com . I wish we had “British multimillionaire guy budget” to play with a car like this, but we don’t, so we are focusing on a commuter car that will do normal performance to go to work, run some errands and come back (which is what most people use thier cars for, most of the time).

    Please, take a look at our project and support the cause… http://www.miamiEVproject.com

    Comment by Donato — September 18, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

  15. @Jules - our batteries are currently Kokam…

    BTW - you should be hearing from Paul shortly

    Comment by dale — September 18, 2008 @ 2:38 pm

  16. Take a flying thing / British bird of prey as your cue - Swift, Kite, Harrier, Goshawk, Falcon

    Comment by drfrank — September 18, 2008 @ 3:00 pm

  17. Two thoughts:

    I would neither go with ‘Zero’ nor ‘Falcon’.
    ‘Zero’ due to the obvious connotations.
    ‘Falcon’ is a large lard-assed Ford family sedan in Aust.

    Personally, I like ‘Aeolus’.

    My query is; I may have completely missed it, but I want to hear how you’re going to use the wind to charge it. The ‘youtube’ talks of ‘150 miles before you have to plug it in’.

    Doesn’t that make it no different to any other electric car?

    But if you were thinking of using some form of smaller diameter fans sitting where the radiator normally would (enabling the wind being forced through the old radiator ducts whilst driving to turn them more easily and at hgher RPM), to drive some form of generator which in turn charges the batteries; ….. now THAT would be special.

    Never plug it in again, no fluids (except brake fluid) and it charges itself as you drive.

    Truly ‘ZERO’ emmissions in a self replenishing ecosystem.

    Comment by Kyle — September 18, 2008 @ 9:33 pm

  18. This is a great project.. nice car to start with :)
    http://www.lotuselisepartsblog.com

    Comment by insy09 — September 18, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

  19. [...] and turning it into an electric Lotus, view the video below to see his progress.. Official Link: http://www.zerocarbonista.com Video Link: http://www.youtube.com Post Link: http://www.jaredturner.org/the-wind-car/ Posted: [...]

    Pingback by The Wind Car… | jaredturner.org — September 19, 2008 @ 1:58 am

  20. Great to see like minded people… and obviously having some very private eureka moments on energy. I am a petrol head an shudder at the thought of not hearing a Mclaren V10 singing at 20,000Hz! Kyle has hit the mark… I too had this eureka - not using the flowing air enough to recharge. Rotational energy is all over the car! Consider this:

    1. Road tunnels have fans to remove CO2… what about, i thought, if the fans rotated from the passing vehicles… that could provide the power to remove the CO2 and power the lights in the tunnel.

    2. What about the water hitting the car….. answer is in my head!!!

    3. What about the wind produced by the poor aerodynamics of the car on the road side… answer also in my head (easy to work out!)

    4. Thermocouples!… answer in my head

    5. many more ideas

    Dale, what about a small convention at Swaffam around your project to get this going?

    http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/201186/mcraes_supercar_ready_for_road.html

    We can build anything

    6. A motor that encapsulates a …. top secret!!

    Jules BSc Physics Lon PGCE Oxon

    Oh and the name for the car and project…

    Its a no-brainer….

    TURBINE

    Think about it..

    Comment by Jules — September 19, 2008 @ 9:40 am

  21. think temp… seebeck

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_effect#Peltier_effect

    jules ;)

    Comment by Jules — September 19, 2008 @ 9:53 am

  22. Hi Kyle, yep you got it, we’re planning an electric car but charged completely from the wind, so it will be zero emission - and wind powered.

    Nice idea by the way, but I think one of the fundamental laws of physics (the one that says there’s no free lunch… :) ) will get in the way. Basically the drag created by fans being used as generators would take as much extra power to propel the car as you might hope to gain from making additional power from the fans.

    We’ll be making our car as slippery as possible (min drag, max efficiency) and that includes blocking up a lot of the old holes you only really need for an internal combustion engine - like the radiator grill.

    Cheers.

    Comment by dale — September 19, 2008 @ 9:58 am

  23. an LED needs region of microvolts to illuminte… and no heat

    LUCAS brake light runs at 12V and circa 0.5 amps at 200 deg celcius or more!!! most cars hitting the brakes as we speak… frightening…. just ponder how much ancient light energy is being used every second through brake lights!!! the filament light bulb has had its day!!! surely

    Comment by Jules — September 19, 2008 @ 9:58 am

  24. Consider Porsche… aircooled engines! Isn’t that more green than water cooled? Surely we need to look back at some inventions and realise we over did it a bit with the industrial revolution and a lot of answers are already staring us in the face!!

    Comment by Jules — September 19, 2008 @ 10:01 am

  25. Hi Dale,

    How about combining these technologies:
    http://colibrispindles.com/
    http://www.btl.co.il/
    in producing a wind jet car.

    These two companies are in my neighbourhood in the Galilee, Israel.

    Could this work?

    Also, it would be cool to looking into doing this open source style.

    Whatever the case - you are so on track. Keep leading the way!

    Cheers, Lloyd

    Comment by lloyd — September 19, 2008 @ 10:30 am

  26. Cool concept, hope you build more than one
    call it
    Farbon Khyber
    or Energy Mazes

    Comment by Gary — September 19, 2008 @ 8:09 pm

  27. [...] More about the GB electric car here on Dale’s blog [...]

    Pingback by Convergency » Blog Archive » » Ecotricity’s Wind Powered Car — September 20, 2008 @ 9:32 pm

  28. How about WIND Powered?

    Having the name explain what it is is always best.

    Cheers

    Comment by lloyd — September 21, 2008 @ 7:01 am

  29. Are Ultracapacitors the ultimate battery? I’ve just been reading this article from http://www.ultracapacitors.org/ :

    “There is been quite a bit of focus lately on lithium ion batteries. As Michael C pointed out here in the last article, lithium is a limited supply and cannot sustain us for the long-term.”

    “Capacitors already enjoy the benefit of fast charging and discharging. Caps can be totally discharged without failure, left in sub zero temperatures for months (or years). Sub zero charging is no problem. Caps also charge at a 95% rate of efficiency. Capacitors can be charged a half million times (or more) and not show any aging (failure to hold full charge). No exotic materials are needed to make a capacitor and no depletion of any material will occur. All these qualities are needed by the auto manufacturers for a car that is less expensive, will start every time and have a long life without problems.”

    It also goes on

    “Wind power generation and the ultracapacitor are complementary technologies, since we need to be able to store some of that power. Also ultracapacitors are used in windmills to control the pitch and movement of the blades. Can we expect to see more widespread use of the ultracapacitor, as sustainable energy sources are further developed and become more available? No Doubt! Ultracapacitors are making their mark now in many applications.”

    So Are Ultracapacitors better than batteries?

    Comment by Justin Noe — September 23, 2008 @ 1:15 pm

  30. Hi Dale,

    The UK’s first electric taxi powered by renewables back in 2000 - which you had a go in had a “Lynch” motor. A genius redesign to give < 3 X the amount of power for the same motor weight. Later - a friend used 2 Lynch motors instead of one (as the taxi was on the slow side and we burned a few cars on the Ebley bypass! Anyhow - I gave up that electric car line as it doesn’t pay for itself commercially, so I may be well out of date with developments.. but if your engineers have not heard of the Lynch motor then that should be an option for your power-weight ratio issue. (The inventor is still about and if I remember correctly make a large version of it)

    Also, and this is a long shot .. but the french chap who is now producing the air cars (in India I think) would be worth approaching for a piece of advice - specifically: whether the energy density of a compressed air container could potentially be less than the weight of conventional batterys. Put another way: Im suggesting that the air store replaces the battery - if the air store is lighter. (The compressor can be still be wind charged of course). Just a thought - I may be well off and the air tank may weigh more - but worth investigating and eliminating - if you haven’t already done so.

    The WindCar will be a good advert for you anyhow - but wont be downscalable for commercial use. For commercial it would be better to have a plug in diesel-hybrid (biofuel) hybrid which is normally charge but run on carbon neutral biofuel for longer ranges when needed. Basically a slight variation to the Prius concept would make it carbon neutral.

    Keep on

    Adi

    Comment by Adi — September 23, 2008 @ 11:34 pm

  31. hi…
    just an obvious thought:
    will the rear motors work in unisome, or will they be able to work like a differential to allow unsymmetrical power delivery to each rear wheel to give maximum traction in cornering, wet, uneven ground etc. conditions???

    Comment by leo — September 25, 2008 @ 11:42 pm

  32. Thanks for the links Lloyd, I’ll check them out.

    Comment by dale — September 26, 2008 @ 10:06 am

  33. Name for the car.

    Event or E-vent. ‘vent’ is French for ‘wind’ and event has numerous thesaurus connotations (all good)

    Or

    ‘Advent’ – many good meanings.

    Or Road-Winder (sounds a bit like a side-winder, missile or snake) and of course has the word ‘wind’ in it.

    Don’t clap - just throw money (cheques, credit cards)

    Comment by Taylor — September 29, 2008 @ 9:36 am

  34. As for a name how about the “G type” with the “G” as a bold capital in green.

    Good luck with the project.

    Paul Denney

    Comment by Paul Denney — October 1, 2008 @ 10:16 am

  35. Sir; I have a patent on a ele car that charges it self. Mind will go over 120 mph. It is not a hybird or solar. The number of batteries is only 8 to 16 [Depending on size of motor] It uses no gas or oil. It will last for about 4 to 6 years agine depending on use. Then the batteries need to be replaced.It is also a mid size car, not a small car. I also can make a suv or larger one if need be. I am making a dvd, an it will be finish soon. If you need more info please email me. Thanks: Denny Kimble

    Comment by Denny Kimble — October 2, 2008 @ 12:23 am

  36. Sir; I for got to tell you that I started this in 1978, So I have been working on every nut an bolt on this car. It looks like that we both need help on getting our cars to market. please email me, with any questions you may have.

    Thangs: Denny Kimble

    Comment by Denny Kimble — October 2, 2008 @ 12:28 am

  37. Hi Leo, good question.

    The motors will be independent and we’ll have in effect an electronic differential, for corners and stuff. Small technical challenge I’m told, but an electronic diff should be better than a mechanical one in a number of ways. We’ll see. Cheers.

    Comment by dale — October 3, 2008 @ 9:47 am

  38. Naming it after a wind as suggested above? Good idea. How about something to do with the sirocco? An unstoppable, penetrating wind which arises when the heat of tropical Africa blows towards Europe. We are all worried that Europe is going to experience hotter weather long-term in the future….

    And sirocco has some kind of sound similarity to zero-CO (admittedly that’s monoxide) or zero-coal.

    Comment by BigP — October 6, 2008 @ 7:30 pm

  39. Thanks BigP, I like that one.

    Comment by dale — October 7, 2008 @ 9:26 am

  40. Great idea - you might want to see what these guys are doing too:

    http://www.teslamotors.com/

    Hope you are incorporating regenerative braking into the design - no use wasting all the braking energy to heat, use it to top-up the batteries !

    Mick

    Comment by Mick Dann — October 19, 2008 @ 12:49 pm

  41. This might have already been mentioned, but there is already a Volkswagen with the name Scirocco. I believe they have also released a new version as well. Would that cause problems in using the same name?

    Comment by Scott — October 21, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

  42. Thanks Mick. Our guys looked at regenrative braking but couldn’t see the sense at this stage. The contribution to battery life and range were tiny indeed, whereas the cost and complexity was quite big. I’m all for the principle of not wasting energy in the heat of braking but currently I think regen braking is more of a sales and marketing thing than real world gain. I expect that will change though.

    ———–

    Thanks Scott, I had the feeling VW had used the name, it’s a good one. but never mind.

    Cheers

    Comment by dale — October 28, 2008 @ 12:38 pm

  43. Hi Dale

    I’m surprised that you have dismissed regenerative braking as a marketing tool. Some train operators are reporting 21% return for regen trains.

    The level of returned energy will depend on how often you are decelerating, turning kinetic energy back into electricity, That’s going to depend on how and where you drive.

    Since this is a sports car, and they are meant to be driven hard, that’s a lot of energy just wasted.

    And while you’ve got the seats out take the opportunity to replace the standard speakers!

    Good luck with the project and your company.

    Comment by Al — November 3, 2008 @ 6:40 pm

  44. Its great to see this project, hopefully to further interest in EVs. We now run 2 Citroen Berlingo Electriques, and clocking up 1200 miles per month. Only problem is the recent increase in Electricity prices!!
    With regard to re-generative braking, its great. On the Berlingos the design of the systems is brilliant, you only recover about 20% of the energy, but the simplicity you get in driving far outweighs the disbenefits of such a system.
    Many people who we talk to readily admit they could use a vehicle such as the Blingo even with its 40+ mile range.

    Good luck, next step is a new version of the Berlingo/ equivalent at a decent cost. It would sell loads.

    Regards
    Grumpy_b

    Comment by Grupmpy_b — November 4, 2008 @ 1:06 pm

  45. Thanks Grumpy_b

    Comment by dale — November 20, 2008 @ 12:30 pm

  46. Thanks Al, I may have overstated that a bit. Our engineers reckoned we might get another 10 miles on the range from regenerative braking, and the cost of development was going to be high. It looked like a luxury to us at this stage. Glad to hear it’s working on trains though and on Grumpy_b’s Berlingos. Cheers.

    Comment by dale — November 20, 2008 @ 12:45 pm

  47. I’m with Kyle here (see below) only I imagined the long thin turbine to be across the roof of the car like a taxi bar with a long lawn mower roller blade shape inside. I know little about mechanical physics but are you sure the wind going over the car can’t be utilised as well, even if it was to subsidise the energy from the plug and yes I hear what you say about drag etc but is there not a pay off available somewhere special fins and shape etc. and how about photoelec cells all over at the same time. My car conks out when I do short runs in the winter because I have lights/heater/radio on. As My car sits mostly all day it could be charging at this time instead of me having to do an extra mile so I can use the heater.

    As I say I know nothing but I do listen to my intuition - I see the future as individual generating mini wind turbines, solar panels etc each individual generating their own energy supply on a microscale as well as more commercial ventures

    Love & Light and keep the mind turbines turning.

    As for a name I suggest the ZC (pronounced ZED SEE)Zero Carbonista!!!!

    Kyles comments Sept 18 2008:
    But if you were thinking of using some form of smaller diameter fans sitting where the radiator normally would (enabling the wind being forced through the old radiator ducts whilst driving to turn them more easily and at hgher RPM), to drive some form of generator which in turn charges the batteries; ….. now THAT would be special.

    Comment by Moonbeam — November 20, 2008 @ 4:43 pm

  48. Just came across your website on the wind car. As I am considering developing my own electric vehicle, I was wondering why you opted for 2 wheel drive system rather than a 4 wheel drive?

    Comment by bones16 — November 20, 2008 @ 11:38 pm

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