Solar Powered Robotic Lawn Mower

 

Tired of pushing around your mower? Rather spend your weekends lazing around instead of behind a noisy, smelly machine under the blazing summer sun? Husqvarana may have the answer for you - but it's not cheap.

The emissions-free Husqvarna Automower Solar Hybrid is the world’s first fully robotic lawn mower that is partly powered by the sun. 

In addition to a charging station for mains powered recharging, the Automower Solar Hybrid has a large integrated solar panel. When there is sunlight available, the solar cells enable the mower to extend its cutting periods before it needs recharging. The battery used in the mower is an 18 volt NiMH 2.2 Ah unit.

Automower is designed to operate with minimum human interaction and can handle lawn sizes of up to half an acre (around 2,000 square meters). A set of guide wires is used to create a boundary around the area to be mowed and the Automower Solar Hybrid then works within that area. If it should come across an obstacle within the boundary, it will back up and alter course.

On a full charge, the Automower Solar Hybrid delivers several hours of cutting before it requires recharging. The units weigh around 10 kilograms and generates a noise level of around 61 decibels - far quieter than a petrol powered mower.

You don't even have to worry about retrieving it from the middle of the lawn when the batteries do run down -  in addition to being able to preset mowing times, the Automower Solar Hybrid will make its way back to the charging station and charge itself when required, even when you’re not at home.

As mentioned, this kind of technology does not come cheap - around AUD $4000. The Automower Solar Hybrid is now available in Australia. 

Ontario On Track For Coal-free Power

 

According to a recent report from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the Canadian province of Ontario is well positioned for the entire phase-out of coal-fired generation by the end of 2014. Replacement capacity is either on-line or on schedule.

Replacing coal fired power generation in Ontario will represent the single largest greenhouse gas reduction initiative in North America according to IESO – the equivalent to taking almost seven million cars off the roads.

10,000 MW of new generation or demand management is in service or planned, comprising of refurbishment of nuclear power facilities, additional natural gas generation, energy production efficiency initiatives and over 1,400 MW of renewable generation – mostly through wind energy, solar power and biomass projects – to be in place by 2011.

Ontario now leads Canada in wind power capacity, with over 700 megawatts of installed wind turbines, and more on the way.  Between January and November 2008, over 1 terawatt hours of wind driven electricity was generated. The province is aiming to have over a gigawatt of wind power capacity up and running by the end of this year. 

The intermittent nature of wind power makes it difficult to forecast generation in Ontario with certainty. For example, wind output on December 2, 2008 rose to 617 MW. By contrast, wind production reached a low of just 2 MW on July 19, 2008, a hot and windless day.

An IESO snapshot of  fuels used to meet electricity demand on Jan. 6 - 20:00-21:00 in Ontario show the following: 

Nuclear: 10047 MW
Hydro: 5522 MW
Gas: 2273 MW
Coal: 2940 MW
Wind:357 MW
Other: 153 MW

In the above figures, only 13.8% of Ontario's power was derived from coal-fired generation. According to the Australian Coal Association, black and brown coal accounts for over 85 per cent of Australia’s electric power.

News for Tuesday 06 January, 2009

 

• Wireless Electricity Via Solar Cells
  

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