Patent Application
20130056991
The present invention relates to the field of power supply units for containers applied in transportation of goods or any other purpose, where such containers use electricity for heating, cooling, lighting or electronic equipment of any kind.
ISO containers are characterized by using standardized corner castings for handling and fixation on ships and trucks etc. Examples of solar power systems for containers are already known. Until now, however, these solutions have shown different draw backs, especially by difficult and slow attachment systems. Some of the known power systems are also hindering easy movement of the container when first attached.
The invention relates to a sustainable power supply unit for ISO Containers used for transportation of goods and for many other purposes. The electric power supply from the unit can be used for heating, cooling, lighting, electric equipment etc. during transportation on container ships and trucks or while the ISO container is stored or applied in building sites, military camps, refugee camps, hospitals, offices, exhibitions, living quarters etc.
The invention is characterized by being shaped as a very small container, whose height is relatively small related to length and width and by the inclusion of ISO container corner castings enabling fast attachment and detachment to a standard ISO container in demand for electricity.
Furthermore the invention is characterized by including sustainable power sources such as photo voltaic solar panels and/or wind turbines as well as electrical batteries and an electronic control system for optimizing the solar and wind power production and battery charging as well as providing constant powering of ISO containers or other electricity consumers. For purpose of easy transportation and storage the invention can be handled, stacked and interconnected in the same way as ISO containers. When stacked and locked several power units may be handled together as one unit, just like a standard ISO container. When connected to the side of an ISO container, the invention can also be used as pent roof or an extra power unit. The invention can be connected by the corners allowing several sustainable power supply units to function together. By using a known technique as pillars the invention can cover and protect a random size area and at the same time provide electric power. The sustainable power supply unit can include a mechanism, called a tracking system, for automatic or manual 1-, 2- or 3-dimensional adjustment of the solar panels enabling a more direct solar insolation on the photo voltaic solar panels.
In the following, a few embodiments of the invention will be described in further detail with reference to the figures, in which
The sustainable power supply unit is constructed to facilitate easy attachment to a standard ISO container using the standard handling equipment found in the container industry worldwide.
The main frame 1 in
The sustainable power supply unit has been developed as a stand-alone, plug-and-play unit. When it is found useful and available, however, the unit can be connected to the grid allowing, for example, power to be fed into the grid during the day and withdrawn during the night and hereby reducing the electrical battery demand yet keeping sustainability. In the U-profiles 6 the demanded (customer specific) electrical battery capacity is loaded. Also the necessary controller electronics might be placed here. The controller electronics might include a maximum power point tracker for optimizing the solar power production, charge controller for optimizing the battery charging process, DC-DC or DC-AC inverter for converting the voltage and current delivered by the solar panels to a relevant voltage/current relationship useful for the specific application. Furthermore, the unit may include logging and communication hardware and software facilitating easy surveillance of the functionality.
As an illustration of the inventions applicability, a common containership carrying for example 300 40′ ISO containers in the top layer may be taken as an example. Using the most common solar cells with an efficiency of 15%, every sustainable power supply unit will be able to produce 12-24 kWh per day or totally 3.6-7.2 MWh per day in this example, potentially replacing an equivalent amount of fossil fuel.
Another example: In the harbor, a number of sustainable power supply units may be stacked while waiting for being used. A reefer container may arrive at the harbor and be unloaded to the dock where it has to wait for a truck for the next part of the journey. A sustainable power supply unit may be picked from the stack by a container crane and placed on top of the reefer container. Connectors are plugged in, and the built-in electronics takes over the power control while checking and adjusting the optimal position of the solar panels 3, determining the need for extracting the extra solar panels 5 or unfolding the wind turbine 7. When the container is picked up by a truck, the sustainable power supply unit can stay on the container all the way to the destination if desired.
ISO containers are used for countless purposes, and other applications may be international relief assistances (where the invention may be used for sustainable power supply in medical clinics, operating rooms, offices and living quarters), refugee camps, military camps, construction sites, remote measurement stations, etc.
