Solar-Powered Mobile Nanogrids Provide Energy Relief in Disaster Zones
Science
Speaker 1: This may look a little like a food truck to you, but there's a lot more going on here. This is a nano grid from Sesame Solar. Now as we speak right now, it's using solar power to create energy. That power can be used to charge just about anything from a coffee maker to a Tesla, from hurricanes to wildfires. When disaster strikes, one of the first things people need is access to power. That's the inspiration behind [00:00:30] this mobile nanog grid. Think of it like a mini solar power plant that you can take just about anywhere accessible by truck. One person can set up a nanog grid in about 15 minutes. You might say it's as easy as saying open sesame.
Speaker 1: Once deployed, a nanog grid starts generating energy Using these solar panels. The power is stored in batteries. [00:01:00] Depending on the size, a single unit can produce anywhere from three to 20 kilowatts. That's enough to power four to six houses. But if the batteries run low, the nano grid has another trick up its sleeve. It's green hydrogen system. It uses electrolyzers to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen while the oxygen is released into the air. The hydrogen is stored in solid state tanks. If the batteries ever drop to 35%, the hydrogen fuel cell kicks in charging the batteries using the stored gas.
Speaker 2: You don't need [00:01:30] a fossil fuel. You don't need diesel or natural gas, just water and sunshine.
Speaker 1: Lauren Flanagan is Sesame Solar's founder and ceo.
Speaker 2: My epiphany was really after Hurricane Katrina, I saw more and more extreme weather events. I'm like, okay, we're doing the wrong thing. By taking diesel generators and gas generators to these emergencies, we have to find an alternative that's fast to deploy, easy to use, scalable, and just as simple as [00:02:00] like a diesel generator. And then we could break this dirty cycle.
Speaker 1: That's when she came up with the idea for the nanog grid that can be used as mobile communications and command centers, medical facilities, and charging stations.
Speaker 2: After hurricanes, Ida and Ian, they were serving 300 people a day. Citizens and first responders, displaced persons with wifi, with help for their phones, uh, clean water, and we powered some large trailers of toilet showers and laundry.
Speaker 1: [00:02:30] In addition to creating and storing power, the nanog grids can also filter water and provide their own 5G mesh network so people displaced in a disaster can get online. We visited this nano grid in Northern California's wine country. Wineries here have faced growing threats from wildfires In recent years,
Speaker 3: The wildfires have brought a whole new dimension to the wine industry. It's something we never anticipated in the past.
Speaker 1: Suzy Salby is owner and winemaker [00:03:00] at SBE Winery. During a recent wildfire, she was lucky enough that she could still get to her winery, but the bad news was that she had no power.
Speaker 3: It is not possible to make wine without power, and um, the most important aspect of power is using, using temperature control, um, without power. The wines were just sort of rotting in the tanks.
Speaker 1: Though her winery is partially powered by solar, it's not nearly enough to keep operations going. She says a Nanog grid would allow her and her staff to continue operations [00:03:30] during a disaster. She showed us how in a pinch, even the process of bottling the wine can be improvised. Keeping the wine industry afloat is crucial for the US economy. California winemakers generated nearly 90 billion in 2022. So in case you're wondering, a typical NANOG grid can cost anywhere from 100 to $375,000 depending on how it's set up. So where else would you see something like this being deployed? Let me know in those comments down below. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget [00:04:00] to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to CNET for more with the future.
