Solarial - Mobile Power for Disaster Relief
May 14th, 2008 by AndrewI just recently completed my industrial design undergraduate thesis, and the design that I decided to explore combines two elegant sustainable technologies - airships and renewable electricity - and puts them to work on the oft-neglected (but increasingly significant) issue of disaster relief. It recently won 1st place in its category at the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show.
Air travel is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. That problem is compounded because, unlike other industries, there is currently very little investment in alternatives. One potential option is airships (lighter-than-air craft) because they are inherently extremely efficient - by George Monbiot’s reckoning, their impact is 80-90% lower than jets. The problem with historical attempts at building a modern airship is that they’ve begun at a massive scale, which makes attracting venture capital much more difficult. The goal of my thesis, thus, was to produce an airship at a modest scale, fulfilling a present need, to act as a transitionary element towards a more sustainable aerospace industry based around airships.
Solarial is an unmanned airship that provides mobile support infrastructure for disaster relief and remote communities, generating renewable energy and supplying communications links where they are needed most. Utilizing a skin coated in thin film photovoltaics, and a reversible drive propeller/wind turbine, it delivers clean energy via tether cable. Housing a suite of telecommunications equipment, Solarial also acts as a relay station for radio and cellular telephone signals, aiding the coordination of relief operations.
More technical details and images after the jump.
Airships need to be large in order to produce sufficient buoyancy for their payload, and thin-film solar cells need large areas because of their relatively low conversion efficiency, so the two technologies go hand in hand. While Solarial is small by airship standards at only 20 m long, this still provides approximately 180 square meters of PV surface area on the top portion of the airship. The solar cells used are based on CIGS technology (currently being explored by Nanosolar, and others), because they have good conversion efficiency (14% at present, though the technology is constantly evolving) and can be manufactured integrally with the airship’s envelope, reducing cost, weight, complexity, and improving reliability and performance.
From an operational standpoint, Solarial flies autonomously to its deployment location - as one example of deployment capability, if the airships were stationed at US airbases around the world, they would be able to reach all the natural disaster hotspots in the world within two days.
Once at the site, the airship then lowers the power box (which contains anchoring mechanisms). The energy generated while the airship is aloft is then transmitted to the ground to power field hospitals, water pumping and purification, lighting, communications, and computer equipment necessary to sustain the operation. At average latitudes and atmospheric conditions, Solarial should be able to produce about 125 kWh per day between its solar cells and the wind turbine. For reference, a 50 L medical refrigerator for storing vaccines and medicine and producing ice might use 300 wH per day. A 10,000 lpd shallow-water pump (sufficient for 300-500 people) may use 5 kWh.
One of the areas that Solarial differs from conventional airship design is that it uses hydrogen instead of helium. Hydrogen has many advantages for this application. Most significantly, the envelope gas can be used as fuel for onboard hydrogen fuel cells that are able to provide buffer electricity at night, or other periods where solar/wind output is low. Two dilation panels on the bottom of the airship expand, providing hydrogen fuel buffer volume, and compensating for changes in altitude, atmospheric temperature and pressure. Hydrogen also has greater buoyancy than helium, is much cheaper, and is renewable (unlike helium, which is becoming increasingly scarce - US reserves are expected to disappear by 2035). While hydrogen gets a bad rap from the Hindenburg incident, the paint used on its skin was a serious contributor to the disaster. Solarial is also unmanned, and much smaller than the zeppelins of the past, so the risk to individuals is very minor.
It’s difficult to condense 70 pages of research and design development into a single post, but the fundamental idea is there. While I’m not sure that airships will actually see widespread adoption in the near future, I certainly hope they will (and am currently working with a company attempting to do just that), so I’m remaining cautiously optimistic.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
You’ve told me enough about these that I really don’t know what to say. I guess I’m just publicly endorsing the idea because I think it’s sweet.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:41 am
[...] I recently found a website providing some design details to make a solar powered balloon, or zeppelin to assist the rescue teams in case of a natural calamity, such as the one in Burma, the earthquake in China, and so on. The idea is to have mobile electric power in such areas, where it can’t be brought by standard ways, or where roads are not a solution to get to the affected community. The balloon, named Solarial, isn’t necessarily manned, it can fly autonomously. [...]
May 15th, 2008 at 9:02 am
You’re probably tired of people telling you this is a good idea, so I won’t repeat it!
Is the application limited to disaster situations? Why not have a fleet permanently floating around a small town or offshore? I imagine you have explored the idea and found reasons why it wouldn’t be very efficient, so lets hear.
I’m curious aboug the tethering cable? What fraction of the weight of the ship does the cable represent? Is it a significant factor determining optimal altitude? I think there exist some space-age light-weight materials that can even outpreform spider web!!!! But they probably cost alot more than cobwebs.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Permanent solar/wind balloons are a great idea, but the design demands for a system like that are different than for something that needs to be able to fly and autonomously deploy itself in a flexible capacity. At an estimated cost of $1M, that would be an awfully expensive source of power. A much more stripped-down solution is preferable for that application, and there are a bunch of companies exploring it - Magenn is following up the wind-power angle, and some researchers in Israel are working on solar balloons.
The tether cable is (currently) only 60m long, and uses an aramid-fiber weave over aluminium transmission cable. There’s also a step-up transformer on-board, and a step-down transformer on the power box on the ground in order to reduce current requirements (meaning thinner, lighter wire). Even at that length, I estimated 50 kg for the cable - the gross lift capacity of the ship is <700 kg, so for higher altitudes you can imagine it would rapidly eat away at payload capacity. I didn’t explore exotic materials too extensively because I didn’t see it being required given the assumptions above (and couldn’t think of much reason for it to fly that much higher), but it might be worth looking into.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Just gonna throw another public endorsement out there. Wooh wooh! Congratulations on the prize, by the way.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Actual airships’ & aeronautic themes is presented in Russian LJ blog AEROCRAT CONCEPT. TO OBSERVE IT IN ENGLISH
MOVE FOR HERE
May 16th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I have an additional add on, why not cover the under belly with small wind generating turbines to make it additionally efficient. Great idea I really like it.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:21 am
[...] May 16, 2008 · Print This Article Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:30 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:30 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:31 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:33 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:33 am
[...] Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers May.16, 2008 in Gadget Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:34 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:37 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:43 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:59 am
[...] Found this on Engadget today: Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:13 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:14 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in catastrophe relief, terrify villagers May 16th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers Posted in May 16th, 2008 by admin in engadget Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it’s a clever one — let’s hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:44 am
[...] More technical details on the original page on pulltheskydown.com [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:48 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:54 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I don’t know much about aerodynamics of physics..
BUT…
Will the turning of the wind generator by the wind cause the airship to rotate in the opposite direction? like helicopters have a rotor at the back to stop this from happening I think..
and, when the blades start turning at high speed, wont this make the ship either move forward or backwards?
May 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Great idea! Going for hydrogen is a bold move, but if this can be made as an unmanned craft like the US armed forces’ robotic recon planes, I think people will accept it. It definitely will fulfill a much-needed function. Good luck developing this further!
May 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
[...] Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers posted by Engadget.com 16th, 2008 Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
[...] Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers posted by Engadget.com 16th, 2008 Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I am wondering whether this could be combined with wind power for a more permanent source of power in remote areas Wind power should get higher yield at high altitude than 100m above the ground
May 16th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
[...] [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[...] [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
[...] Filed under: 外围设备这个设计无疑是很实用的，这种飞艇可以在灾后迅速升空，克服繁杂的道路，快速抵达灾区上空，同时利用遍布全身的CIGS太阳能（第一代为单晶硅太阳能电池，第二代为多晶硅、非晶硅等太阳能电池，第三代太阳能电池就是CIGS（CIS中掺入Ga）等化合物薄膜太阳能电池及薄膜Si系太阳能电池）电池芯片，为灾民提供12 个的 120V 输出及 2格 240V插槽（当然这个配置可以定制的），相当于一个小电站，给灾民提供应急电力，当然，这个思路可以延伸成：空投通讯设备，卫星电话等；不过现在停留在概念设计阶段，不过可行性很高，我们希望尽快实现。Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
May 17th, 2008 at 3:48 am
[...] posted by on May 16 « Data Portability: It’s The New Walled Garden Orange brings the iPhone to customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa » Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
May 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Average output comes to 5kW, which is comparable to a typical $1500 home backup generator.
But I’d still like to see it done, if only for the cool factor.
May 17th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
[...] 可向灾区空投太阳能电池站的飞艇 这个超酷…而且也会相当实用,”:基洛夫移动电站reporting….” 飞艇通过太阳能供电,可提供基本电力输出. 像这次地震,道路完全破坏,这样的情况下飞艇的优势就能很快的体现出来了… 这个设计无疑是很实用的，这种飞艇可以在灾后迅速升空，克服繁杂的道路，快速抵达灾区上空，同时利用遍布全身的CIGS太阳能（第一代为单晶硅太阳能电池，第二代为多晶硅、非晶硅等太阳能电池，第三代太阳能电池就是CIGS（CIS中掺入Ga）等化合物薄膜太阳能电池及薄膜Si系太阳能电池）电池芯片，为灾民提供12 个的 120V 输出及 2格 240V插槽（当然这个配置可以定制的），相当于一个小电站，给灾民提供应急电力，当然，这个思路可以延伸成：空投通讯设备，卫星电话等；不过现在停留在概念设计阶段，不过可行性很高，我们希望尽快实现。 希望尽快实现咯…灾难的救星啊 来自: http://cn.engadget.com/2008/05/16/solarial-solar-blimp-concept-could-aid-in-disaster-relief-terri/ 原文链接: http://pulltheskydown.com/ideas/258 [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 12:32 am
[...] Solarial - Mobile Power for Disaster Relief An unmanned airship that provides mobile support infrastructure for disaster relief and remote communities, generating renewable energy and supplying communications links where they are needed most. (tags: solar wind) [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 2:21 am
“could… terrify villagers.”
So long as it doesn’t burninate them. The peasants, I mean.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:06 am
[...] Or can you? Andrew Leinonen has put together a strong concept design for an airship covered in solar panels that can be flown into a disaster area, anchored in, and immediately begin to serve power to the rescue effort. [...]
May 19th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Simply superb - Hats off to your innovative thinking.
Cheers!!
Jason
I blog at http://jsbi.blogspot.com
May 19th, 2008 at 10:49 am
[...] Read a summary. [...]
May 19th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Very timely idea and hope you get some VC support if you are hoping to carry the idea to the end. We might have more Myanmar type of stuff as the Global warming continues.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
[...] Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use unmanned airships carrying solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have power outlets and communications equipment. [...]
May 19th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
What happens in bad weather with high winds?
May 20th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Incredible !
This idea is genious ! and ‘ll can help any population in the world…
After the idea, the timing to export in the world…?
May 20th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
[...] http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1637/ http://pulltheskydown.com/ideas/258 http://www.acido.info/rocket2008/students/7Leinonen_Andrew/index.htm [...]
May 20th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Robert: conventional tethered aerostats can operate in winds of up to 56 mph or so (for comparison, a category 1 hurricane has its threshold at 75 mph). This design has been optimized with a somewhat squashed profile for a more aerodynamic cross-section, has large stabilizing control surfaces, potential for vectored-thrust control if absolutely necessary, and a carbon-fiber keel structure that makes it semi-rigid.
With those additional design features, I feel confident in saying it will be able to operate in all but the worst conditions (i.e. hurricane force winds).
May 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Dear airship friends
Congratulation for your work. For many years I have been trying to assist a renaissance of LTA
vehicles. I would be psed to have your mail,
e-mail address and fax no (my scanner is out)
Mobile Power for disaster relief is OK, but there
is a much bigger need for “Lighter Than Air”
sustainable and economical Transport vehicles.
I like to fax you my report:
QUO VADIS Air Cargo Industry ? Best regards Léon Meier
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
[...] [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 10:37 am
[...] Con 20 metros de largo, el Solarial ofrece una superficie de 180 metros cuadrados de películas fotovoltaicas utilizándose de tecnología CIGS, que a través de una mezcla de cobre, indio, galio y selenio crean una de las películas fotovoltaicas más eficientes actualmente en uso. Para saber más sobre el Solarial: Solar Power Generating Blimps for Disasters | Solarial: Mobile Power for Disaster Relief [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am
[...] Irremediablemente algo tienen los globos aerostáticos que a muchos nos fascinan. Será su encanto vintange que nos recuerda a mil películas y libros de aventuras de nuestra infancia. Pero estos vehículos voladores también evolucionan y crecen con el paso de las décadas. En Move your Mind he visto uno que debe ser lo más novedoso en cuanto a estos aparatos que he visto hasta la fecha. Te hablo del Solarial un globo aerostático recubierto de paneles solares que sirven para llevar energía a cualquier lugar en el que un posible desastre natural impida obtenerla por los cauces habituales. Una idea ingeniosa que puede ayudar a que las zonas que han sufrido algun percance vuelvan a la normalidad de forma mucho más rápida. Mayo 26th, 2008 [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Where do I sign up? Honestly!!!
Great start!
May 26th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
[...] The outside is coated in thin-film photovoltaic cells (something Nanosolar is working on to boost from a current efficiency of 14%) and plus has a reversible drive propeller/wind turbine. As blimps themselves have a 80%-90% lower environmental impact than jets, such transport would plus be earth-friendly. From the commentary, [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Brilliant idea and I’m really very interested as we are undertaking large vaccination campaigns and in some areas the power supply is a real problem …
We are under process of assembling 14 camps for such vaccination campaigns and it would be great to power some of them in retired areas with such a device …
Expecting your answer to know how we can work this together …
Best regards,
Etienne CHAVOT-DUPIN
Chairman & Founder of Pharmaciens Du Monde
May 27th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Sir,
I have been in the LTA (lighter than air) field for over 25 yrs, I truly believe in the concept. You have a good idea that needs some fine-tuning. I would like to help. First I read where one person thinks that the Tether may be to heavy, if this is the case I can supply a very light (100lbs per 300M) Fiber optic Tether with a copper core & Kevlar strength for mooring. I can also help with material weights & I know of some ways to increase your lifting capacity by increasing your helium volume. Also depending on the hardware you have used we maybe able to lower that weight as well. Love the idea & feel free to contact me thru my e-mail address that I supplied when leaving this message. Good luck
May 30th, 2008 at 11:42 am
[...] Filed under: Misc. Gadgets [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
[...] speaking of gimmicks, here’s one I love - Solar Power Blimps that are deployable to provide emergency power for disaster sites. Possibly related posts: [...]