A first of its kind off-grid e-bike charging station has started generating power on Newcastle Quayside.
Power Trip has been developed in the North East by Hexham -based firm Intelligen International and offers e-bike riders arriving at Newcastle’s Cycle Hub overlooking the city’s iconic Tyne bridges, the chance to recharge their batteries with zero-carbon energy for just pennies whilst grabbing a revitalising drink themselves.
Power Trip’s developer Dr Geoff Wallman has plans to install more of the devices across the North East, and hopes to see it rolled out across the UK as growing fears about climate change and soaring fuel prices push people to find cheaper and cleaner alternative forms of transport.
Read more: More North East children to be taught how to ride a bike thanks to £1m funding
Power Trip uses an always generating combination of both solar and wind power to charge e-bikes with 100% carbon free electricity, and comes under the category of inventions it’s hard to imagine haven’t been thought of before.
But Geoff says: “If you look at the history of invention, I think almost all new technical developments come from combining bits of technology. Essentially, that is what we are doing.
"That is where innovation comes from. You take all of your different bits of technology that already exist and then you combine then together. I think sometimes that’s the sign of a good idea when people say, ‘hasn’t this already been done?’
“We can’t find any examples of public zero carbon e-bike chargers. We have had one on the roof of our unit in Hexham trialing it for two years, and in that time I think only one other company has produced something that looks similar to what we are doing, but only conceptually.”
Geoff, who is CEO and founder of Intelligen International, is keen that Power Trip should be seen as a first that’s originated in his adopted North East. “I’m passionate about the place as a region. To be an engineer it’s really exciting and it would be brilliant to think that this is the latest in a long run of inventions that have gone on to bigger and better things that have come from in and around the North East.”
Intelligen has been supported with funding from the Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles through the Niche Vehicle Network.
Geoff, who has a Phd in engineering from Newcastle University where he specialised in combined heat and power generation, is about to install four Power Trips at Haltwhistle train station. He is also in discussion with local universities, English Heritage and tourist sites across the North East to install his home-grown, off-grid charging station which can take four e-bikes at a time.
Geoff said: “The intention is to create a network of publicly accessible bike chargers which means people can lessen their range anxiety and be able to jump on their bike with the same kind of certainty they can in a normal car, park safely and charge from wherever they happen to be, whether that be a supermarket, a coffee shop, a bed and breakfast or a hotel.
“The brilliant opportunity we have with Power Trip is that we can say to people, when you fill up your bike, you are doing so with absolutely zero carbon electricity. You can see the wind turbine on top, you can see the solar panels, and you can see the energy flow down into the bikes.
“It’s super exciting, you know where your energy is coming from. We’re not importing it from other countries, we’re not generating it in some far flung power station that you don’t know what it’s running on. You can see it locally, you can see it being produced right in front of you.”
Power Trip generates a fairly modest 1kw of electricity and Geoff says it could in time be used to help power e-scooters, mobility scooters and cargo bikes.
Power Trip currently uses new lithium phosphate batteries for storage, but Geoff is looking at using spent batteries from Nissan Leaf cars. He said: “Some of these end-of-life electric car batteries still have 60% capacity left in them and because Nissan uses a modular system it would make it a bit easier for us to include in any future design.”
