Bike sharing that creates energy – and pays you to ride?
By Andrew Heining | 07.16.09
File under: “Yes please,” “Awesome of the day,” and “Car[e]-free cruising.”
Remember when a simple bike-sharing program was considered revolutionary?
Chiyu Chen, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has conceived of an urban bike sharing program that not only provides riders utility, but also powers the local bus system – and pays them to do so.
Users check out specially designed bikes from a locking station using an ID card. Inside the bikes is a system that stores kinetic energy generated from braking. Riders go where they need to, and when they’re finished, bring the bike back to the locking station. Locking up the bike transfers the energy generated by the trip into the city grid – or, as Chen envisions, into a hybrid bus system.
Ride enough – and generate enough energy – and bike sharers can earn a bus pass. Completing the trifecta: the locking stations would be placed near bus stations, both to make renting a bike convenient and to facilitate easy bike-to-bus recharging.
As Mike Chino at green design blog Inhabitat points out, the key to Chen’s system is the “Hybrake” regenerative braking module he’s designed. Watching Chen explain it in the video below, it seems to be much like the Toyota Prius’s, only miniaturized (and, yes, monetized). He’s increased the output of a standard Sturmey-Archer dynamo hub (commonly used to power bicycle headlights), set the more powerful dynamo to only kick in when the brake is engaged, and added an ultracapacitor to store the accumulated kinetic energy while the bike’s out and about.
For now, the system’s still a concept, but it opens the door for future innovations, and begs some interesting questions: What will the auto industry of the future look like? What new ways will we generate energy? How will urban planning change to facilitate these new advances?
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Got your own ideas for more efficient transportation? How does this system sound to you? Leave a comment or connect with us on Twitter.
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2. Shawn Reeves | 07.16.09
This is a system which should be pursued; not, however, because of the implied economy. This will not be a good financial experiment, but it will make a great social experiment, and should come with many indirect benefits.
Imagine various people used each bike 10 hours a day. A rider on a rigorous ride delivers delivers 100 watts (a racer 300W, but for a limited time; a cruiser 25W). Most of the energy is lost into the road, but let’s assume 50% of the energy the rider puts in is retrieved by the regenerative braking system. 10 h/day x 100 W x 50% = 0.5 kWh/day, or five to ten cents worth of electricity per day.
So, even with all these liberal assumptions, each bike would not generate more than $36 a year worth of electricity. My more realistic estimate is about $5 per annum. How much money and energy would go into developing and deploying this system? Quite possibly more than the return.
Not that it isn’t a great design, it is a wonderful design. Not that everything we do in public needs a return on investment. But the reporting should not mislead readers about the benefits. Why? Because when people learn a bit more the truth, there is an unjust but understandable backlash, just as there is against photovoltaic systems.
3. Jacqui Porth | 07.16.09
The system sounds really great. I’d sure use one. Thanks for giving the subject greater visibility.
It is clear that biking is one of the most popular modes of transporation in the world. You may be interested in a recent America.gov special feature package on Bikes for the World.
See:
4. Rod | 07.16.09
It doesn’t make any sense to return the stored energy to the city grid, there simply isn’t going to be enough to make that worthwhile. It may make sense to use it to power other things on the bike (lights, GPS, etc.), but there are already hub generators which perform this task. If it does a better job that hub generators, and is comparably priced, then great. If not, it will be a nice toy that has little practical use.
7. Doug | 07.16.09
Great idea, but the amount of energy that a bike rider can contribute is very, very small, maybe 200-300 W-hr at most? A much better solution in my mind would be to make a hybrid bike, where the regenerative braking energy were used by the bike to accelerate from stops, climb hills, etc. This would make the bikes much easier to ride and might actually get more people to ride bicycles.
9. Chris | 07.17.09
Only in Britain, a country where it’s smart to be ignorant of physics, could such an idea get published.
10. Larry | 07.17.09
Worth thinking about. What those who criticize are failing to consider is the number of people riding bicycles in the world. Since braking energy is being used on his system, the amount of effort the rider expends is not increased. That energy generated by braking is currently lost as heat. The sum that could be generated by the millions riding bicycles could be significant, if captured. Nay saying is not going to solve our problems.
11. Angela | 07.17.09
It’s so much easier to poo-poo other people’s ideas, than to take an interesting thought and invest in it. What the world needs right now is many more people thinking outside of the box (and getting out of their cars). What the world could do without right now is more of the selfish, hyper-critical, nay-saying, defeatism we all-too commonly encounter. Even if we could only capture a miniscule amount of energy from such a system, the point remains that many more people out of cars and onto bikes would improve problems like traffic congestion, parking issues, pollution, global warming and would reduce the occurrence of road-rage, obesity and even make the world a generally happier place.
12. gary | 07.17.09
Every time I go to the gym and use the much of the equipment, bikes and ellipticals especially I think of all the energy that me and my fellow gymnasts are creating and is going to waste.
14. Alain | 07.21.09
Gary,
check out this article on a gym in Portland, Oregon that is capturing that energy you mention going to waste in gyms.
16. RW | 07.23.09
Hence this being developed by an art student, not a physics or engineering student. The bikes would probably contribute .0000001% of the needed energy to run a bus system. Not enough to even cover the cost of giving a free bus pass out. This is akin to the wackos who think they can power a car from hydrogen that is made by electrolysis simply from the power of a car battery. HA HA HA. Laughable.
17. Diane Jay | 07.23.09
Thanks fpr the informative article, but before you write another one please see
http://begthequestion.info/
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1. Gladys Batan | 07.16.09
I like