Loading...Summertime means the festival season. Warm weather, hot dogs, carnivals, tailgates, good ol’ American fun. And if you’re hanging your hat in Central Ohio these days, you might see the topic of this story at your next outdoor gathering.
The GPAD has no affiliation with Apple, but its “gee whiz” factor is just as big. It combines renewable energy, solar, wind, advanced batteries, and a touch screen, too – all in a not-so-small package.
Oh yeah, and it’s free to use. Curious? So was our Dominic Giarratano, and he caught up with the GPAD in our nation’s capital.
What is this thing? It’s the GPAD, the “Green Power Alternative Demonstrator” – and it’s a solar photovoltaic array, wind turbine, battery station, and mobile marketing effort all rolled into one.
Twenty-five feet long, 9 feet wide and weighing in at more than 14,000 pounds, the GPAD is an effort by the Central Ohio LMCC – the joint organization funded by NECA and the IBEW – to stay in front of technology today.
Provided at no cost to show promoters, festival organizers and others, the GPAD provides 2.7 kilowatts of photovoltaic power, and 1.2 Kilowatts of wind power to any remote location. That’s equivalent to as much power is as needed to power a medium-sized home.
Brian Engle, senior technology instructor, Electrical Trades center, Columbus, Ohio
“So the main point of the GPAD is really the 2.7 kw array broken into 4 independent strings. The power from the sun is converted into a DC voltage and brought back down into the inverter in the control cabinet in the back and stored in two 48-volt battery banks that provide 40,000 watt hours of standby electricity in the event that we get to an event and the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.”
What’s most important about the GPAD is not necessarily the renewable energy it generates – it’s that this thing is out there, 365 days a year, showcasing the training and technology that comes when a building owner or contractor hires the NECA-IBEW team.
Brian Engle, senior technology instructor, Electrical Trades center, Columbus, Ohio
“It’s important to us to not only show that this is a sustainable resource, but to make sure that they know that when these jobs take off, we have the trained workforce already in place to install these systems efficiently and economically.”
Built from scratch, the GPAD features a lot of really cool technology.
Brian Engle, senior technology instructor, Electrical Trades center, Columbus, Ohio
“The 24-foot wind turbine is driven by this ball screw to a right angle transmission with a half horse motor. Along this rail and allows it to be put in its full upright position in 60 seconds. So it’s really handy when we do transport, when we get it in an environment where lightning is an issue, we can get it down quickly. This is really the heart and soul. This is where we make the magic happen. So what we have is a Zantrax hybrid inverter. Power distribution. So we’ve got a feed in from a standby generator in the event that we would ever need that. Here we have an eight inch HMI touch screen. This provides a graphical interface for everything that’s going on with the safety system.”
The newest technology, some American innovation and the best safety features – sounds like the GPAD has a lot in common with the NECA-IBEW team.
Brian Engle, senior technology instructor, Electrical Trades center, Columbus, Ohio
“It gave us the opportunity to highlight the craftsmanship and training of our guys, really what the IBEW and NECA is trying to do.”
The GPAD is just one way LMCCs all around the country are touting their skills in the electrical trade. If you’re interested in seeing what your local LMCC can do for you, click on “resources” at the top of this page.