AirRay concept scoops the competition with four turbines, solar panels and V2G
Fans of the normal-car-as-EV style of the Coda Sedan, you've been warned. What we have here is the AirRay, a totally unusual vehicle that (theoretically, at least) uses solar, wind and plug-in power to decrease gasoline consumption. It's also a little bit crazy.
The giant air scoops on the hood and rear of this car are used to power the air turbines – three in front, one in back – that generate energy for some sort of unspecified battery system. Said battery can also be charged using a plug, and the whole apparatus is Vehicle to Grid (V2G) capable. On the roof, a "solar honeycomb-membrane panel" sucks up rays for additional power.
The AirRay is the product of EarthSure Renewable Energy Corp., which bills itself as "an American corporation innovating technologies to produce energy in a clean and affordable way." What are they all about? Well, "Our goal is to offer a cost-effective way for all businesses to use Green Energy, regardless of size or industry. We are on the cutting edge of compliance with America's Green Initiatives as they relate to the energy and environmental provisions in the Stimulus Plan. Sounds like this car will be ready ... never, but there's a video of the rendering in action after the jump. Thanks to Sean J. for the tip!
[Source: AirRay]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Throwback 4:07PM (11/13/2009)
An Audi A6 with a hood and trunk scoop?
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Doug 4:11PM (11/13/2009)
Apparently they also pay no attention to basic laws of thermodynamics.
Reminds me of this silliness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkcn8ZkvKKc
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Carney 4:23PM (11/13/2009)
It's funny that you have a Homer Simpson avatar, Doug. When I saw this car and its description before the jump, the first thing I thought of was that this was the real life (?) green equivalent of the "Homer", the car Homer designed for his long-lost brother the car executive. With a ridiculous shape and loads of questionable gadgets (like a horn that plays "La Cucaracha"), the Homer was an Edsel-like disaster for the company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F
Here's a picture:
http://tinyurl.com/ykl56l2
Doug 6:19PM (11/13/2009)
Of course my avatar is from that very episode.
safxzm 10:22PM (11/14/2009)
I fully agree with you. The critical factors that affect automobile effciency barring the engine weight, coefficient of drag and traction. The relationship of these factors to auto-efficency is as follows:
1) Inversely propotional to weight.
2) Inversely propotional to coefficient of drag.
3) Directly propotional to traction.
Creating the scoop will increase the coefficient of drag as well as reduce the traction. One will end up using more energy trying to use wind than creating energy.
Stupid design, as bad as the youtube link you posted.
Carney 3:42PM (11/17/2009)
D'oh! Irony!
Somehow I missed that, focusing only on Homer's big yellow head.
Germaine 4:20PM (11/13/2009)
Oh my god this hurts...doesn't he realize that he increases wind resistance with his fan scoops and the increased resistance has to be overcome by the motor.
The law of energy dictates that he will spend at least the same amount of energy in overcoming the added resistance as he can hope to re-coup. Factoring in a loss of energy due to system efficencies, he'll end with a negative balance.
On the companies website earth-sure.com they show more whacky ideas that can't physically work.
It's a shame that such uneducated "inventors" with physically impossible ideas give alternative energies a bad name.
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Carney 4:25PM (11/13/2009)
When I was in 5th grade I proudly presented my science teacher with a drawing I made of a jet engine that would supposedly go on forever because propulsion would force more air into it which would then spin a turbine and provide power to compress and expel the air.
She gently explained the same things to me that you did.
Unless these guys are in elementary school, there's no excuse....
Atlas 3:18AM (11/14/2009)
Carney, I built something similar out of a toy car and noticed this couldn't work. I was also about 10.
I have a hard time believing the builders of this contraption actually believe it works.
Ernie 4:31PM (11/16/2009)
The only way a perpetual motion machine like this works, is if it's powered by the stupidity of its investors.
Bip-D-Bo 4:20PM (11/13/2009)
Please tell me that this was produced to mock somebody. Please tell me that these people don't actually believe that you can power a car with the apparent wind that is produced by the car's speed. Somebody needs a lesson in the law of conservation of energy. This reminds me of those little propellers people put on their trailer hitches. I tell gullible people that they are used to charge batteries to drive the car.
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Joeviocoe 4:43PM (11/13/2009)
Yeah... people don't seem to ever learn. And neither does ABG it seems. The same perpetual motion nonsense.
Yeah the solar cells can add some power for accessories or while parked all day in the sun. The plug in feature is good too. That is why major automakers are using both, because they ARE useful.
However, hood and trunk scoops? Really? Maybe if they popped up only when wanting to decelerate. Then it would work just like regenerative braking (only much less efficiently). But having those scoops on the body all the time would ALWAYS provide more drag than what can be overcome by the additional energy from the turbines.
Before the nut jobs come out of the woodwork... again, let me put it in simpler terms:
To extract energy from the wind, you must get that air to push on the turbine blades. This will slow down the air and spin the blades. But the basic laws of motion say that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction.
So, the air pushes against turbines, which are connected to the car. The car must push through the wind with greater power to maintain speed.
No matter how much energy you can get from the turbines (even if they are 100% efficient), the resulting drag force will ALWAYS be greater.
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FitFan 5:04PM (11/13/2009)
It sounds like we all agree on this one. The designer apparently slept through or never attended a high school physics class.
Kyle 6:36PM (11/13/2009)
I wish autoblog would stop posting these stories, unless they are just doing it for our own amusement.
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Sebastian 8:00PM (11/13/2009)
:)
Paul 11:00PM (11/13/2009)
How about adding a TAG called "Joke of the week"?
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Jonathan King 2:05PM (11/16/2009)
+1 for the joke of the week tag. These stories do amuse me but I would like to be reassured that the editors of the site aren't actually fooled...
Lionum 12:18AM (11/14/2009)
Believe it or not, one of my graduate mechanical engineering advisors thinks that this may actually be possible if the aerodynamics are worked out. He argues that if the turbines are small enough and are located at stagnation points...
Aside from the obvious thermodynamic laws, the other obstacle is turbine efficiency. Betz' Law states that the maximum possible efficiency of a horizontal axis turbine is 59.3%. Also, most wind turbines for home power generation are only capable of a few hundred watts to one kilowatt of power output, and are too large (12-24") in diameter for use on a passenger vehicle.
End result: in order for any car-based wind turbine to be effective, it needs to
a) have a 10x increase in nominal power output,
b) be small enough not to disrupt the car's aerodynamics considerably, and
c) not violate thermodynamic laws!
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Joeviocoe 10:52AM (11/14/2009)
"He argues that if the turbines are small enough and are located at stagnation points"
This is a common argument in aerodynamics. Put the extra drag where there is ALREADY SOME DRAG. This is ignorant!
If you add anything that extract energy, it will take energy away from the system (A BAD THING). In aerodynamics, you want to leave the energy of motion alone as much as possible.
If you add even a small turbine, the small amount of energy MUST come from somewhere. And that is ADDITIONAL DRAG! Sure you can make it more aerodynamic to make up for the lose. But that will give you the energy you need to go farther without the need for extra gizmos.
Only something that extracts energy when energy is undesirable will this work. Oh... its called regen braking.
robertzamudio@yahoo.com 12:41AM (11/14/2009)
Um, according to the AirRay site your tipster "Sean J" is the CIO and web designer of the company.
Thanks for the joke Sebastian...
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