Stop Porsche, You Had Us at Photovoltaic Pylon
While it’s certainly fun to say “photovoltaic pylon,” it’s really hard not to be scared of the thing. Especially if you’re a J.R.R. Tolkien fan.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who looked at Porshce’s recently completed, 25-meter-high solar pylon and thought of Tolkien’s The Two Towers: “…rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr.”
For those of you less geeky, I’ll spare you all the details about Barad-dûr‘s relationship to the Dark Lord Sauron, but you’re really missing out on some classic lit right there. Alas, we’re here to discuss a different kind of magic, the light kind. As in solar.
According to Porsche, the convex tower is built with 7,776 solar cells, weighs 37 tonnes, sports 270 square meters of surface area, and can generate up to 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That’s theoretically enough juice to power the Porsche Centre in Berlin-Adlershof when it opens the doors in 2017.
If you’re driving one of the three current Porsche plug-in hybrids, you’ll be able to “fill up” at the pylon, free of charge. And someday soon, you’ll be able to do so in a Mission E or maybe even an electric 911 too. If you’re not too scared to approach the ominous tower.