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On 12 July 2016 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, USA, Lily Hsu, the Director-General of Taiwan's Economic and Cultural Office in New York, handed over Skynergy, an eco-power electric bicycle station, to Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, and Deputy Mayor of New Jersey City, Marcos Vigil. The handover ceremony was attended by executives and officials from the main facilitator, Taiwan's Green Trade Project Office (GTPO); Bike And Roll, the future administrator of Skynergy; project partners UL and Asolar; and major manufacturing partners from Taiwan.
On this occasion, GTPO reiterated the importance that moving towards an eco-friendlier living attaches not only to government and business sectors, but also to the worldwide general public. Lih-Chyi Wen, GTPO's Deputy Director expressed that this special installation showcases how ever-improving solar energy technologies, smart energy management and storage systems, cloud computing, and eco-friendly products are making zero-energy consumption possible; and most importantly, how it changes people's lives.
As a self-contained, self-sustaining power station, Skynergy is well suited to support disaster relief and humanitarian efforts, as well as various residential, retail, or recreational purposes, in places where power is unavailable. In addition, since it is housed in a standard shipping container, Skynergy is easy to transport via land, air, or sea.
Skynergy runs on high-power photovoltaic panels. For the NJ project, it is an installation that has been created from a recycled shipping container that will actually serve as an electric-bicycle station. This Skynergy features a photovoltaic module on the rooftop area of the container. These panels feed the station's grid with electricity, with any excess electricity then stored in the onboard batteries, which are compact chambers of lithium-ion battery packs.
The station has also installed a hydrogen fuel cell to provide reliable backup power, in case of blackouts. Under normal conditions, the hydrogen fuel cell self-refuels, when a supply is maintained through the solar-power source. In total, this fuel cell can provide more than 8 hours of back-up power while operating at its maximum output.
Additionally, with the help of a smart-energy-management system, cloud-monitoring technologies have been implemented to help ease the burden on administrators who must face the challenge of overseeing the central control of scattered equipment. This helps to create fast and more efficient workflows between devices, which boosts productivity and saves energy.
In addition to consuming zero-energy from the grid, the station also features several innovative green products of note, such as an insulation coating; an energy-saving film for windows; solar bricks; a stone-like surface coating; floor mats made of recycled tires; and luminaries made of materials from discarded computers, among many others.
