As someone who longs to ride my bike across the country, this nifty invention caught my eye: It’s the Navitas, a bike trailer that generates its own power using the sun and wind - presumably to power small electric devices a cross-country cyclist may want to take with them.
The Navitas was designed by Paul Smith, a student at University of Derby in England. It has a rear wheel that splits three ways to become a vertical axis turbine. There is also a compact solar panel to help to provide a charge to the onboard 24V battery. The battery provides power through a 12V cigarette lighter socket and a USB hub.
That’s not all the trailer does - you also can haul stuff around in it, as it has a 40-liter storage compartment. You can see the poster explaining the trailer here.
It’s an interesting concept, though, of course, the durability of the wind turbine and the actual power-generating capacity of the wind and solar devices would need to be significant to make it worth adding the extra weight of this trailer to your bike. It will, after all, take more personal energy to pedal a bike towing a trailer than a bike that isn’t.
