The EiP Wind Machine
The EiP machine is the central building block of an EiP system. On top is a stationary bird-safe, 8′ wide by 6′ tall cage that directs any turbulent or gusty winds into internal blades that sit on top of a slowly rotating heavy flywheel. The flywheel is surrounded by cluster of magnets and inductors, and powered by high-speed switch-mode electronics, enabling wind energy to be converted directly into energy.
With only one moving part, the EiP machine is extremely reliable and will produce power in excess of 100 mph winds. Constant regulated DC voltage is produced by each machine, which can be connected to a building power panel through standard UL approved ABB motor drives. Since there are no chemicals or toxic materials used, EiP machines will not spark or cause fires.
A Cluster of EiP Machines
Power within each EiP machine is sampled at 24,000 times per second. When clusters of EiP machines are interconnected, power can be sent to different EiP machines at specific intervals within the power cycle to increase total storage time. How does this work? Consider yourself on a one-speed bicycle. When you press your right foot down, you add power during the first half of the power cycle. This helps propel your left foot back up the relax part of that foot’s power-cycle. On a bicycle you need to keep this up or the bicycle will eventually stop. In a cluster of two or more EiP machines, power out from each machine’s relax cycle is pulsed at high speed to another machine’s power cycle, thus increasing efficiency and storage time. The result is a hyper-efficient system that generates additional power from an internal oscillation, requiring very little assist from external batteries.
Solar Boost
Solar panels and EiP machines make great companions. EiP machine absorbs every scrap of power received, drawing power from solar panels with extremely high efficiency. Solar panels fed directly into an EiP system will deliver 2X or more power utilization boost above a standalone solar system.
Now consider a rooftop solar installation with only 15% of power served by solar panels. Adding EiP machines can more than double the power utilization, and also produce additional power from the wind, in a footprint only slightly larger than the original solar footprint. This capability alone opens up a new market for 100% renewable power to industrial, commercial, and high-density residential rooftops.
Batteries
EiP systems can interoperate with batteries. In a basic EiP system, a small string of NiMh batteries increases storage time during cloudy or windless conditions. NiMh won’t explode or cause fires, although EiP systems can be used to charge any battery system including a car-charging station. The amount of batteries incorporated into an EiP system will be approximately 80% less than that required for a standalone storage system.
Microgrid Transmission
In default configuration, EiP systems can interoperate with the grid, in which case Microgrid Transmission doesn’t apply.
For those users interested in configuring EiP systems in off-grid mode, EiP systems provide several radical new advancements in low-carbon and highly efficient power transmission. Power is delivered via EiPLink in a way that doesn’t decay over distance. Ever use an electric weed whacker, then plug it into an extension cord and it stops working? That won’t happen with EiP technology. We have tested 1 kW power loads sent over a quarter-mile span of twisted pair Ethernet Cable with no measurable power loss. Because we send power in packets rather than AC current, there are no transformer required in an EiP system. This is huge for remote communities where transformers have been known to heat up, spark, and cause fires.
EiP systems send power bi-directionally, so that power can be send anywhere up or downstream in the system to meet loads. Excess power from a solar system could be sent into an EiP micrgrid during the daytime, then fed back at night with virtually no loss.
EiP systems also solve the massive power losses power switching. In a transformer this produces heat or buzzing. Remember high school physics; v=ir? This means every time you switch voltage, from high power lines to low, or to 480V, 240V, or 120V services at your business, there is loss. In an EiP system there is a magnetic gap between input and output voltage, so that loss becomes nearly unmeasurable.
The combined benefits of EiP machines, operating with solar panels, small battery system, and EiPLink microgrid, produce a level of high-efficiency and low-carbon not yet experienced in power systems today.
EiP System Benefits
- Generate power from the wind – safe to birds
- Double power utilization from attached solar panels – 2X+ Boost
- Integrated storage – chemical free
- Scalable from 150kW to 1MW loads
- Provides integrated power regulation
- Operational in hurricane force winds
- Reliable – only one moving part
- Won’t explode or cause fires
- Require only a small footprint
- Extremely efficient and Low Carbon