Today is National Bike to Work Day, and all across America, people are ditching their cars and trucks for a cleaner, healthier journey via bicycle. Our friends at Voltaic Systems joined in the fun to support NYC’s Bike to Work Day, and it’s no surprise that they added their own solar-powered flair to the day’s festivities. Company staffers decked out a commuter bicycle and with a custom-built bike trailer carrying 60+ Watts of portable solar panels, 180 Watt hours of charging capacity, and lots of connectors to charge up smartphones, tablets and even a MacBook, in an effort to show New Yorkers how much fun can be had when human and solar power are combined.
Wondering how they crammed so much charging power into this unique bike trailer? “We started with a Jamstand for DJs and cut down the legs a bit with an angle grinder so it would fit on our bicycle trailer,” explains Jeff Crystal on the Voltaic blog. They then mounted the Jamstand onto a simple $99 bike trailer offered by i10Direct. They then designed and built a frame to fit four Voltaic 16.8 Watt portable solar panels which deliver 67 Watts of power at 18 volts.
The panels feed into four V60 universal laptop batteries in a lockable drawer on the trailer, explains Crystal. “They have 60 Watt hours of capacity which translates into up to 8 smartphone charges. With a solar panel connected, you can keep them charging all day.”
The Voltaic crew was all over the Big Apple today, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, hanging out with the folks from Transportation Alternatives and KIND Snacks, checking out the action at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and finally heading back over the Manhattan bridge to DUMBO.
Didn’t get a chance to see the solar-charging bike trailer in action? No worries–Voltaic is willing to rent it out! Just email them for details.
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