Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/440012
EquipmentWorld.com | January 2015 33 innovations | continued M ining asteroids in space may not seem like something that would produce benefi ts for poor people in the Third World or construction contractors here on earth. But an idea that started in the private space exploration sector has now evolved into a new product that stands to benefi t both – Planetary Power's HyGen hybrid diesel-electric generator. It was Planetary Power's fi rst mission that identifi ed the need to create power and electricity in outer space – one of the applications being asteroid mining. Plan- etary Power took this need and began development of a direct solar powered engine called SUNsparq. In developing the hybrid system (energy production and storage) used in SUNsparq, the engineers quickly real- ized that a similar system could be engineered using a diesel engine, high effi ciency alternator, and energy storage. This developed into HyGen as a faster-to-mar- ket alternative while the next generation solar-powered engine for SUNsparq is developed. Diesel power, battery storage If you understand how a Chevy Volt works, you have the basic concept of the HyGen – an internal combus- tion engine combined with a battery. Like the Volt, it can produce electrical power directly off the engine, or when loads are lighter, out of the batteries without the engine running. HyGen is a serial hybrid; this means the power production is "decoupled" from the load, reducing the stress on the engine. Pairing a diesel engine with lithium-ion batteries on the Hygen hybrid generator solves a whole lot of problems for a whole lot of people Where diesel is hard to get, this hybrid generator can keep the lights on and the work going.