A green energy electrical charging station including a support pole; a bench for connecting to and extending from the support pole; a canopy for connecting to the support pole and shading at least a portion of the bench; at least one solar collector on at least a portion of the canopy; at least one wind turbine supported by the pole above the canopy; a battery for electrical association with the at least one solar collector and the at least one wind turbine; a first electrical circuit for delivering electrical power from the at least one wind turbine and solar collector to the battery; at least one electrical outlet located in proximity to the bench; and a second electrical circuit for delivering electrical power from the battery to the electrical outlet.

A method of controlling power transfer in a power system including a main bus, having a first and second bus sections, the first bus section connectable to the second bus section, first and second power generating units connectable to the first and second bus sections, a first and second drive systems connectable to the first and second bus sections, a central energy storage system, and a control system. The first and second drive systems include first and second bi-directional power converters connectable to the central energy storage system, and wherein the control system is arranged to control the first bi-directional power converter to transfer power from the first drive system to the central energy storage system, and to control the second bi-directional power converter to transfer power from the central energy storage system to the second drive system.

An electric power supply system includes a first battery provided in an electric power supply circuit; a second battery provided in the circuit and electrically connected in parallel to the first battery, the second battery being a lithium-ion battery; an electric load provided in the circuit and electrically connected in parallel to the first battery and the second battery; a switch provided in the circuit, and configured to electrically disconnect the second battery from the circuit when the switch is open; and a control device configured to open the switch when an ignition switch is on and an SOC of the first battery is equal to or higher than a prescribed SOC, and to execute an open-circuit voltage acquisition process that acquires an open-circuit voltage of the second battery after a lapse of a prescribed time from a time when the switch is opened.

A power management and selection system for a class 8 tractor trailer, directs excess solar and vehicular charge capacity to an auxiliary load by measuring available charge capacity from a reefer power system including a reefer battery, solar panel and charge controller for moderating solar power to the reefer batter, and measuring available charge capacity from a cab vehicle power system including a propulsion system battery and alternator. Charge logic, in a selector configured for switching charge capacity to the auxiliary load, determines which of the reefer power system and cab vehicle power system has the most potential excess charge capacity, and directs the determined excess charge capacity to the auxiliary load, while the measured available charge capacity remains sufficient for powering the respective reefer power system or cab vehicle power system.

A power distribution node for a power architecture, and method for operating, includes a microgenerator configured to generate a supply of electrical power, and a power distribution unit connected with a power supply bus and the microgenerator and configured to selectively energize at least a subset of electrical loads disposed proximately to the power distribution node. The energizing power is operably supplied by at least one of the power supply bus or the microgenerator.

A battery control device capable of controlling the deterioration speed of the characteristics of a secondary battery on the basis of the internal resistances of the positive and negative electrodes. The battery control device comprises: a storage unit for holding beforehand a data table DT2 indicating the rate of increase in the resistance of the positive and negative electrodes; and a DT1 calculation unit calculating a data table DT1 representing the correlations among the temperature, the battery state-of-charge and the upper limit current, and the correlations among the temperature, the battery state-of-charge and the lower limit current on the basis of DT2, a positive electrode state-of-charge, a negative electrode state-of-charge, a battery state-of-charge, and an allowed range for the rate of increase in the battery resistance. The battery control device controls the current of the secondary battery on the basis of DT1 calculated by the DT1 calculation unit.

Systems and methods for controlling power flow to and from an energy storage system are provided. One energy storage system includes an energy storage device and a bidirectional inverter configured to control a flow of power into or out of the energy storage device. The energy storage system further includes a controller configured to control the bidirectional inverter based on one or more signals received from the generator set coupled to the inverter via an AC bus. The controller is configured to, based on the one or more signals, control the bidirectional inverter to store power generated by the generator set in the energy storage device and transmit power from the energy storage device to a load driven by the generator set to maintain the generator set within a range of one or more operating conditions.

A vehicle power system may include a gate driver configured to drive a traction gate and a generator gate corresponding to switches of a variable voltage controller such that the gates have alternating pulse width modulation ON periods. The gates may be driven in response to a throughput magnitude falling below a threshold. The gate driver may be further configured to drive the gates such that a duty cycle of one of the gates is zero in response to the throughput exceeding the threshold.

In one illustrative embodiment, a wind-driven charging system includes a wind-driven rotation device coupled to a rotatable shaft, and a plurality of electric generators disposed at different longitudinal locations along the rotatable shaft and each of the plurality of electric generators are rotationally driven simultaneously by the rotatable shaft. By having the electric generators disposed at different longitudinal locations, more electric generators may be simultaneously driven by a common shaft. In some instances, a controller may be configured to enable more of the electric generators to provide electrical current to recharge a battery when the speed of rotation of the rotatable shaft increases, and may disable more of the plurality of electric generators to not provide electrical current when the speed of rotation of the rotatable shaft decreases.

The present disclosure relates to micro-hybrid battery modules that include at least one battery cell having a titanate-based oxide anode active material with spinel structure and a high voltage spinel (LiMn.sub.2xM.sub.xO.sub.4) cathode active material. The battery module may be configured to couple to an energy storage unit to enable the module to be used in start-stop applications.