Decarbon Venture has released what it claims is the world’s first “replaceable” solar generator that weighs half as much and is twice as powerful as other products on the market.
Engineer Geoff Elwood’s experience of being shut down in the Australian outback inspired him to develop a new range of mobile solar generators, he says. With 7.2 kWh of storage and 6 kW of power, Decarbon Venture says its products are the most efficient mobile generators on the market and outperform their gas competitors.
“They are also much lighter and cheaper to run than comparable gas-powered generators,” Eldwood said.
The DCV AirBase ecosystem includes foldable 400 W solar panels that connect to a semi-fixed battery. The storage component is modular and comes in three variants:
- AirBase Quad, 7.2 kWh of storage space, weighs 42 kg
- AirBase Duo, 3.6 kWh of storage space, weighs 22 kg
- AirBase Power Module, 1.8 kWh and 8 kg
The system is designed for car camping, boating, off-grid living and possibly home backup. This is a very popular market segment among Chinese manufacturers, and numerous such products will be on display at the Smart Energy conference in May.
However, Decarbon Venture emphasizes its readiness for the Australian outback – which is clearly a tough natural environment. The company also says it’s the first product of its kind that allows the batteries to be removed and replaced with new ones without turning off the power.
“I wanted to build an evergreen solution that uses modular power cells that can be swapped out when needed and scaled up or down,” Elwood said.
Decarbon Venture’s AirBase family of generators will initially be sold through a Kickstarter campaign in late August.
