When the Power Goes Out, Renewable Energy Trailer Goes to Work in Michigan
Thu Aug 13, 2009 4:02pm EDT
By Jeff Kart
Here's a feather in the cap of renewable energy supporters.
When the (baseload, coal and nuclear) power went out after storms in Muskegon, a mobile renewable energy unit came to the rescue.
Mobile Gen LLC, an energy company based in Houston, Texas, has been testing a new mobile power generation trailer at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab in Muskegon. The lab is an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA facility lost its power after a Sunday storm, and the mobile unit kicked into action, giving off juice for a field station, classrooms and scientific equipment, reports The Muskegon Chronicle.
The story adds that the mobile unit, a 20-foot utility trailer with two wind turbines, five solar panels, battery storage and a propane hydrogen generator, is actually able to power the facilities indefinitely.
You can't go and buy one just yet. The prototype was built in Elkart, Indiana, famous for travel trailers. It's intended for use by the military, disaster response and government agencies like NOAA, which also runs the National Weather Service, quite appropriately.
Also appropriate: The trailer will be marketed as well to recreational vehicle enthusiasts.
A writer at Blogging for Michigan observes that the Mobile Gen is supplying 50 percent of the facility's power, and may go into service at other remote government sites for full-time power in the future.
(Image Credit: Leaning power line. By Tammra, via Flickr.)
Reprinted with permission from CleanTechnica
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