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The first of 1,100 planned solar-powered bus shelters has been unveiled in San Francisco. The other 1,099 will be installed across the city over the next four years.
The roof of the bus shelter is made up of thin-film solar panels embedded in a 40 percent post-industrial recycled polycarbonate material in a rolling wave shape. The structure of the shelter is made of recycled steel and other materials.
The solar roof powers an intercom, LED lighting and wireless routers, so that the bus shelters will become wireless hot spots around the city. The shelters will feed any excess energy generated by the solar panels to the city grid.
While solar-powered bus shelters are not a new concept, it's cool to see an American city deploying them, especially using them to spread WiFi throughout the city. San Francisco is once again setting agreat example.
via Inhabitat
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written by hyperspaced, June 04, 2009
Where they fit the batteries (for night use), the internet modem, the WiFi access point and the converter/transformer for the city grid, greatly eludes me.
And of course not to mention that with 5m^2 thin film solar panels (less than 10% efficiency) you barely get enough power.
4 years to install 1000 of these?
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written by bill, June 04, 2009
This system would make economic sense for an off grid system because it would save the enormous costs associated with connecting to the grid.
But, they are connecting it to the electrical grid making the addition of the PV panels a waste of time and money.
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written by Stacey Spencer, June 04, 2009
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written by Jackal, June 05, 2009
1. The bus stops are already connected to the grid for existing lights and advertising boards. 2. As such, connecting to the grid will eliminate the high costs of installing batteries to power the lights at night.
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written by artdude102, December 15, 2009
This is about the ugliest bus shelter I've seen in a long time. The wavy red roof... Seriously? It's like something from the 80's barfed up something "modern"
The solar bus shelters from Italy make this look like a complete joke.
DESIGN FAIL!!!
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(and possibly the world) as a significant source
of energy.
The idea of excess energy being sent to the
city's power grid shows how our energy needs can
be met a step at a time.