A dependable power source is crucial for mobile work operations, e.g. building sites, music festivals or ambulances. They’ve tended to use diesel generators. But a German company has now developed a zero-emissions alternative.
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00:00This cool little video is actually an ad for portable battery power packs used at places
00:11like music festivals.
00:16Great for impromptu jobs involving power tools or jet washers.
00:21They look really good, they look smart and they're lightweight enough that you can as
00:27one person pick them up, put them in the back of your golf buggy and take them to the next
00:32job.
00:33The Leonhard Weiss Construction Company in southwest Germany uses the Instagrid power
00:39packs for welding work on steel girders instead of diesel generators.
00:44This worker's mask only needs to protect him from flying sparks, but not dirty fumes.
00:50The batteries boast up to 90% lower emissions.
00:53The company already has around 300 power packs in use on its building sites.
00:58For welding jobs, the battery is good for a full 12 hours.
01:04We saw it as an alternative to existing power units.
01:08We wanted our staff to have an additional option with less noise on site and a better
01:14work environment and with no emissions in their direct vicinity.
01:20It's an alternative product to classic power generators.
01:26The batteries are being increasingly used for ambulances and other mobile work settings.
01:32Their maker, Instagrid, was founded in the southwest German city of Ludwigsburg in 2018.
01:38The company now has a 170-strong and very international workforce, busy developing and
01:43servicing the high-performance batteries.
01:47Essentially, it's a power station as seen in everyday life, for camping for example.
01:57Except that this device has been optimized for industry customers, who need a very high
02:02capacity.
02:03And that meant digging deep into our bag of tricks to develop our own power electronics.
02:11Our inverters are not constructed as a single unit.
02:15Instead, we divided the device into 24 small units, each with one small battery pack and
02:21a small inverter.
02:24And those 24 inverters are then connected via a fast controller and a complex piece
02:29of software to work as a unit.
02:33Instagrid has sold almost 30,000 packs to customers in Europe and the US, with demand
02:38continuing to rise despite a price tag of around 3,500 euros.
02:44There are a lot of challenges.
02:46We worked out that around 50 million small combustion generators hit the market every
02:50year, not including cars.
02:52And we have a long way to go until we've replaced all of them.
02:57One idea would be to create devices that are cheaper and that can be connected to provide
03:01greater flexibility.
03:03For construction firms, there's also the issue of recharging, another thing diesel
03:08generators have traditionally been used for.
03:14The biggest challenge on our sites right now is infrastructure.
03:18Where do we get the power from to recharge the Instagrids?
03:23Right now I can cover a certain period of time, but after that I need another power
03:28source.
03:30One option is solar power modules, except they're often not available on the changing
03:35construction sites, which is also an issue at the secret garden party festival.
03:41Which is why they still need diesel generators to charge the batteries.
03:45Ideally they'd have Instagrids with a higher and longer capacity, not least with festivities
03:52continuing long into the night.