Connect with us

Published

1 month ago

on

Headlining today’s Green Deals is Jackery’s Home Improvement Sale, which is continuing its previous flash sale offers alongside new additions, one of which being the Explorer 3000 Pro solar generator bundle with a 500W panel at its $1,999 low – plus, continuing free gifts on the brand’s newest Explorer 5000 Plus and its bundles, and more. We also have the unexpected price cut on Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 Off-Road Long-range e-bikes to a new $1,579 low, while also coming with $336 in free gear during the brand’s latest sale, as well as EGO’s 56V 765 CFM Cordless Leaf Blower with 5.0Ah and 2.5Ah batteries down at $330. Bringing up the rear is Govee’s Smart Electric Composter which has dropped down to $305. Plus, all the other hangover Green Deals are in the links at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s latest sales from Lectric, Segway, Aventon, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Jackery’s Explorer 3000 Pro comes with 500W solar panel at $1,999 low in Home Improvement Sale

Jackery has switched over to its Home Improvement Sale through March 28 with up to 50% discounts on new offers added alongside the previous flash sale offers, many of which are dropping further in price. One notable ongoing deal for the second time is Jackery’s Explorer 3000 Pro Portable Power Station bundled alongside a 500W solar panel for $1,999 shipped. This new package would normally run you $3,999 at full price, which we saw brought down to today’s rate only a few days ago for the first time, which is continuing in this longer-form sale. We did see a similar bundle with two 200W panels two weeks ago among the brand’s spring sale savings hitting $1,994, so considering you’re getting an extra 100W of solar input here for just $5 more (in the form of its newest solar panel model to boot), this deal is looking all the better. This is a 50% markdown we’re seeing, cutting $2,000 off the going rate and officially marking its current all-time low, which you won’t find at Amazon either.

If you’re dusting off your camping gear – especially if it includes an RV – or even preparing for any home backup emergency needs, Jackery’s Explorer 3000 Pro is a larger and more versatile option to cover all your bases. It starts with a sizeable 3,024Wh battery capacity, delivering up to 3,000W of power output that can surge to 6,000W for larger appliances. With 10 output port options, one of which is an RV-dedicated TT30 port, this is one of the brand’s few and best options for motor home living alongside the Explorer 2000 Plus and Explorer 5000 Plus – both of which come as modular and expandable options (see their deals below).

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Recharging for the Explorer 3000 Pro takes just about 2.4 hours when plugged into a wall outlet, or it sports a maximum 1,200W of solar input that can push the battery back to full in three to four hours (so around twice as long for this bundle combo we’re seeing here). It also provides the option for connecting to your car if you’re desperate, recharging back to full in about 35 hours.

***Note: One thing we’re seeing continue from the previous flash sale is the inclusion of a free Explorer 100 Plus 99Wh LiFePO4 power station along with your purchase of the Explorer 5000 Plus station and its bundle packages. Some of these deals are matching at Amazon, though keep in mind that they won’t give you the free gift there.

Jackery’s Home Improvement Sale essential critical load backup:

Jackery’s Home Improvement Sale essential appliance backup:

Jackery’s Home Improvement Sale outdoor adventure deals:

Jackery’s accessory deals:

You can browse the entirety of Jackery’s Home Improvement Sale on the landing page here, and be sure to get your orders in by March 28, when the sale ends. 

Lectric XPeak 2.0 off-road long-range e-bike

Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 off-road long-range e-bikes with 80-mile range and $336 in free gear fall to new $1,579 low

Popping our head back into Lectric’s ongoing Nothin’ But Net Sale, which is offering up to $762 in free gear along with e-bike purchases, we spotted a price cut on the brand’s XPeak 2.0 Off-Road Long-Range e-bikes to $1,579 shipped along with $336 in free gear. Originally priced at $1,699 since launching in November, this is the first time we’ve seen a price cut on one of the brand’s newest models, with the bundle here normally costing you $1,915 ($2,035 at original pricing), marking a new all-time low. Along with your purchase, you’ll also be getting a rear cargo rack, fenders over both tires, an Elite headlight, and a suspension seat post. Head below for more details on this model, as well as the rest of the sale’s lineup of deals.

Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 Long-Range e-bikes sport significant upgrades from its predecessor, like the addition of a new torque sensor that pairs with the brand’s PWR+ tech for more responsive PAS support for up to 80 miles of travel thanks to the improved 20Ah battery. It also has the 750W Stealth M24 rear hub-motor (peaking at 1,310W) that provides riders with top speeds of 28 MPH, when permitted by your local laws. You can also find the standard XPeak 2.0 e-bikes with a 60-mile travel range at $1,399 shipped and coming with $316 in free gear.

All of the XPeak 2.0 models come with notable structural upgrades too, like the new hydroformed aluminum frame, a higher-end RST Renegade front suspension fork, lock-on hand grips, a larger 203 mm front disc for the hydraulic mineral oil brakes, and a new color LCD display. There’s plenty of continuing stock features from its previous generation too, including a Shimano 8-speed Altus derailleur, puncture-resistant off-road tires, a throttle for pure electric riding (though this decreases mileage), removable pedals, accessory mounting points, and hidden cable routing, as well as all the add-on accessories you’ll get from the bundle.

Be sure to checkout the full lineup of deals from Lectric’s sale in our original coverage here, especially the exclusive Nothin’ But Net cargo packages on the brand’s XP 3.0 e-bikes.

EGO Power+ 56V 765 CFM cordless leaf blower

Grab EGO’s 56V 765 CFM cordless electric leaf blower with 5.0Ah and 2.5Ah batteries at $330

EGO’s Power+ Savings event is still going, with tons of ongoing deals across an array of the brand’s electric lawn care equipment and tools. One notable inclusion that deserves some spotlight time is the brand’s 56V 765 CFM Cordless Leaf Blower that comes with a 5.0Ah and 2.5Ah batteries for $329.99 shipped. This bundle would normally cost you $509 in full, with more frequent discounts usually hitting its counterpart package with just the 5.0Ah battery that has gone as low as $293 at Amazon. Considering the 2.5Ah batteries usual $150 rate, scoring it here at just $37 more is quite the steal. Today’s deal has only been beaten in price once before in April 2023, when it last hit its $300 low.

Housing a brushless motor, this 56V leaf blower from EGO offers up to 90 minutes of averaged continuous runtime thanks to the 5.0Ah battery, with that rate bumped to 150 minutes with it at its low setting – and of course, the extra 2.5Ah battery offers extended times once swapped out. There is a variable speed control on this model for a 260 to 580 CFM range, while the turbo mode ramps that all the way up to its max 765 CFM (around 200 MPH air flow). Along with the device, batteries, and charger, you’ll also be getting a spread nozzle, a tapered nozzle, and a shoulder strap.

We’ve covered a lot of amazing deals from this sale, many of which are new and returning low prices. Be sure to check them out before the savings end:

govee smart electric composter

Turn food waste into nutrient-rich soil with Govee’s Smart Electric Composter at $305

Coming at us by way of its official Amazon storefront, Govee is offering its Smart Electric Composter for $304.99 shipped, after clipping the on-page $150 off coupon. Normally sitting up at a $500 price tag since hitting the market in October, it’s mostly been discounted to $350 in the time since, with occasional falls further to $300. Today’s deal is a 39% markdown that puts $195 in initial savings back in your pocket (plus the money you’ll save utilizing it in your life), dropping costs to the third-lowest price we have tracked – $5 under our previous mention a month ago and $55 above the all-time low that we haven’t seen since it first released.

If you’ve wanted to cut down on your food waste and/or recycle that waste to reuse as low-cost soil for your plants, you’ll want to consider adding this Smart Electric Composter to your home life. It keeps digital records of your usage so you can better track your wasteful habits, providing you with another means to save money when planning out meals.

It provides three different operating modes, complete with smart controls via the companion app and hands-free voice controls through Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri – with safety notifications even being sent to you should anything not be functioning properly. Of course, I’m sure you’re worried about smells that tend to permeate from the composting process, but this model has been given two interchangeable filters that prevent those odors from escaping and filling up your kitchen. You can find replacement filters at Amazon for $26 right now too.

Best New Year EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Environment

‘Repowering’ era for America’s aging wind energy industry begins, despite Trump’s effort to kill it

Published

10 hours ago

on

April 27, 2025

By

'Repowering' era for America's aging wind energy industry begins, despite Trump's effort to kill it

Jeffrey Sanders / 500px | 500px | Getty Images

On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order indefinitely halting permits for new onshore wind energy projects on federal land, as well as new leases for offshore wind farms in U.S. coastal waters. The action not only fulfilled Trump’s “no new windmills” campaign pledge, but struck yet another blow to the wind industry, which has been hit hard over the past few years by supply chain snags, price increases upending project economics, public opposition and political backlash against federal tax credits, especially those spurring the fledgling offshore wind sector.

Nonetheless, the nation’s well-established onshore wind industry, built out over several decades, is generating nearly 11% of America’s electricity, making it the largest source of renewable energy and at times last year exceeding coal-fired generation. On April 8, the fossil-fuels-friendly Trump administration took measures to bolster coal mining and power plants, but as the infrastructure driving wind energy ages, efforts to “repower” it are creating new business opportunities for the industry’s key players.

This repowering activity has emerged as a bright spot for the wind industry, giving a much-needed boost to market leaders GE Vernova, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, a subsidiary of Munich-based Siemens Energy. Following several challenging years of lackluster performance — due in particular to setbacks in both onshore and offshore projects — all three companies reported revenue increases in 2024, and both GE Vernova and Siemens stock have moved higher.

GE Vernova, spun off from General Electric a year ago, led overall onshore wind installations in 2024, with 56% of the U.S. market, followed by Denmark’s Vestas (40%) and Siemens Gamesa (4%).

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

hide content

GE Vernova stock performance over the past one-year period.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, installed wind power generating capacity grew from 2.4 gigawatts (GW) in 2000 to 150.1 GW as of April 2024. Although the growth rate for launching new greenfield onshore wind farms has slowed over the last 10 years, the U.S. is still poised to surpass 160 GW of wind capacity in 2025, according to a new report from energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

There currently are about 1,500 onshore wind farms — on which more than 75,600 turbines are spinning — across 45 states, led by Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas. Virtually all of the wind farms are located on private land, and many of the largest ones are owned and operated by major energy companies, including NextEra Energy, RWE Clean Energy, Pattern Energy, Clearway Energy, Xcel Energy and Berkshire Hathaway‘s MidAmerican Energy, which generates 59% of it renewable energy from wind, including 3,500 turbines operating across 38 wind projects in Iowa.

A growing number of the turbines are 20-plus years old and nearing the end of their lifecycle. So increasingly, operators have to decide whether to upgrade or replace aging turbines’ key components, such as blades, rotors and electronics, or dismantle them altogether and erect new, technologically advanced and far more efficient models that can increase electricity output by up to 50%.

“What’s becoming clear is that more and more of the U.S. installed base [of onshore turbines] has exceeded its operational design life,” said Charles Coppins, research analyst for global wind at Wood Mackenzie, “and now operators are looking to replace those aging turbines with the latest [ones].”

To date, approximately 70 GW of onshore wind capacity has been fully repowered in the U.S., according to Wood Mackenzie, while an additional 12 GW has been partially repowered. The firm estimates that around 10,000 turbines have been decommissioned and that another 6,000 will be retired in the next 10 years, Coppins said.

Damaged wind turbine that was first hit by a tornado then lightning.

Ryan Baker | Istock | Getty Images

Beyond the fact that aged-out turbines need to be upgraded or replaced, repowering an existing wind farm versus building a new site presents economic benefits to operators and OEMs. To begin with, there’s no need to acquire property. In fact, in certain situations, because today’s turbines are larger and more efficient, fewer turbines are needed. And they’ll generate additional electricity and have longer lifecycles, ultimately delivering higher output at a lower cost.

Even so, “there are some limitations on how much capacity you could increase a project by without having to go through new permitting processes or interconnection queues” to the power grid, said Stephen Maldonado, Wood Mackenzie’s U.S. onshore analyst. As long as the operator is not surpassing the allowed interconnection volume agreed to with the local utility, they can add electricity to the project and still send it to the grid.

Public opposition, Maldonado said, may be another hurdle to get over. Whether it’s a new or repower wind project, residents have expressed concerns about environmental hazards, decreased property values, aesthetics and general anti-renewables sentiment.

RWE, a subsidiary of Germany’s RWE Group, is the third largest renewable energy company in the U.S., owning and operating 41 utility-scale wind farms, according to its CEO Andrew Flanagan, making up 48% of its total installed operating portfolio and generating capacity, which also includes solar and battery storage.

One of RWE’s two repower projects underway (both are in Texas), is its Forest Creek wind farm, originally commissioned in 2006 and featuring 54 Siemens Gamesa turbines. The project will replace them with 45 new GE Vernova turbines that will extend the wind farm’s life by another 30 years once it goes back online later this year. Simultaneously, RWE and GE Vernova are partnering on a new wind farm, immediately adjacent to Forest Creek, adding another 64 turbines to the complex. When complete, RWE will deliver a total of 308 MW of wind energy to the region’s homes and businesses.

Flanagan noted that the combined projects are related to increased electricity demands from the area’s oil and gas production. “It’s great to see our wind generation drive the all-of-the-above energy approach,” he said. What’s more, at its peak, the repower project alone will employ 250 construction workers and over its operating period bring in $30 million in local tax revenue, he added.

In turn, the twin projects will support advanced manufacturing jobs at GE Vernova’s Pensacola, Florida, facility, as well as advancing the OEM’s repower business. In January, the company announced that in 2024 it received orders to repower more than 1 GW of wind turbines in the U.S.

Koiguo | Moment | Getty Images

Siemens Gamesa has executed several large U.S. repowering projects, notably MidAmerican’s expansive Rolling Hills wind farm in Iowa, which went online in 2011. In 2019, the company replaced 193 older turbines with 163 higher-capacity models produced at its manufacturing plants in Iowa and Kansas.

Last year, Siemens Gamesa began repowering RWE’s 17-year-old Champion Wind, a 127-MW wind farm in West Texas. The company is upgrading 41 of its turbines with new blades and nacelles (the housing at the top of the tower containing critical electrical components) and adding six new turbines.

In early April, Clearway announced an agreement with Vestas to repower its Mount Storm Wind farm in Grant County, West Virginia. The project will include removing the site’s 132 existing turbines and replacing them with 78 new models. The repower will result in an 85% increase in Mount Storm’s overall electricity generation while using 40% fewer turbines.

Preparing for ‘megatons’ of turbine recycling and tariffs

Another benefit of repowering is invigorating the nascent industry that’s recycling megatons of components from decommissioned turbines, including blades, steel, copper and aluminum. Most of today’s operational turbines are 85% to 95% recyclable, and OEMs are designing 100% recyclable models.

While the majority of mothballed blades, made from fiberglass and carbon fiber, have historically ended up in landfills, several startups have developed technologies recycle them. Carbon Rivers, for example, contracts with the turbine OEMs and wind farm operators to recover glass fiber, carbon fiber and resin systems from decommissioned blades to produce new composites and resins used for next-generation turbine blades, marine vessels, composite concrete and auto parts.

Veolia North America, a subsidiary of the French company Veolia Group, reconstitutes shredded blades and other composite materials into a fuel it then sells to cement manufacturers as a replacement for coal, sand and clay. Veolia has processed approximately 6,500 wind blades at a facility in Missouri, and expanded its processing capabilities to meet demand, according to David Araujo, Veolia’s general manager of engineered fuels.

Trump’s new-project moratorium isn’t his only impediment to the wind industry. The president’s seesaw of import tariffs, especially the 25% levy on steel and aluminum, is impacting U.S. manufacturers across most sectors.

The onshore wind industry, however, “has done a really good job of reducing geopolitical risks,” said John Hensley, senior vice president for markets and policy analysis at the American Clean Power Association, a trade group representing the clean energy industry. He cited a manufacturing base in the U.S. that includes hundreds of plants producing parts and components for turbines. Although some materials are imported, the investment in domestic manufacturing “provides some risk mitigation to these tariffs,” he said.

Amidst the headwinds, the onshore wind industry is trying to stay focused on the role that repowering can play in meeting the nation’s exponentially growing demand for electricity. “We’re expecting a 35% to 50% increase between now and 2040, which is just incredible,” Hensley said. “It’s like adding a new Louisiana to the grid every year for 15 years.”

GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik recently told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the growth of the U.S.’s electric load is the largest since the industrial boom that followed the end of the second world war. “You’ve got to go back to 1945 and the end of World War II, that’s the infrastructure buildout that we’re going to have,” he said. 

As OEMs and wind farm developers continue to face rising capital costs for new projects, as well as a Trump administration averse to clean energy industries, “repowering offers a pathway for delivering more electrons to the grid in a way that sidesteps or at least minimizes some of the challenges associated with all these issues,” Hensley said.

Vestas CEO says wind turbine manufacturer is ‘well positioned’ amid tariff concerns

Continue Reading

Environment

ABB is bringing its new, 1.2 MW modular truck chargers to ACT Expo

Published

1 day ago

on

April 26, 2025

By

ABB is bringing its new, 1.2 MW modular truck chargers to ACT Expo

Capable of delivering up to 1,200 kW of power to get electric commercial trucks back on the road in minutes, the new ABB MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System is part of an ecosystem of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that ABB’s bringing to this year’s ACT Expo.

ABB E-mobility is using the annual clean trucking conference to showcase the expansion of its EVSE portfolio with three all-new charger families: the field-upgradable A200/300 All-in-One chargers, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System for heavy-duty vehicles shown (above), and the ChargeDock Dispenser for flexible depot charging.

The company said its new product platform was built by applying a computer system-style domain separation to charger design, fundamentally improving subsystem development and creating a clear path forward for site and system expansion. In other words, ABB is selling a system with both future-proofing and enhanced dependability baked in.

“We have built a system by logically separating a charger into four distinct subsystems … each functioning as an independent subsystem,” explains Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “Unlike conventional chargers, where a user interface failure can disable the entire system, our architecture ensures charging continues even if the screen or payment system encounters issues. Moreover, we can improve each subsystem at its own pace without having to change the entire system.”

Advertisement – scroll for more content

The parts of ABB’s new EVSE portfolio that have been made public so far have already been recognized for design excellence, with the A400 winning the iF Gold Award and both the A400 and C50 receiving Red Dot Design Awards.

New ABB chargers seem pretty, good

ABB’s good-looking family; via ABB.

ABB says the systemic separation of its EVSE enhances both reliability and quality, while making deployed chargers easier to diagnose and repair, in less time. Each of the chargers’ subsystems can be tested, diagnosed, and replaced independently, allowing for quick on-site repairs and update cycles tailored to the speed of each systems’ innovation. The result is 99% uptime and a more future-proof product.

“The EV charging landscape is evolving beyond point products for specific use cases,” continued Halbherr. “By implementing this modular approach with the majority of our R&D focused on modular platforms rather than one-off products … it reduces supply chain risks, while accelerating development cycles and enabling deeper collaboration with critical suppliers.”

Key markets ABB is chasing

HVC 360 Charge Dock Dispenser depot deployment; via ABB.
  • PUBLIC CHARGING – with the award winning A400 being the optimal fit for high power charging from highway corridors to urban locations, the latest additions to the A-Series All-in-One chargers offer a field-upgradable architecture allowing operators to start with the A200 (200kW) with the option to upgrade to 300kW or 400kW as demand grows. This approach offers scalability and protects customer investment, leading to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings over 10 years.
  • PUBLIC TRANSIT AND FLEET – the new Charge Dock Dispenser – in combination with the already in market available HVC 360 – simplifies depot charging with a versatile solution that supports pantograph-, roof-, and pedestal charging options with up to 360kW of shared power and 150m/490 ft installation flexibility between cabinet and dispensers. The dispenser maintains up to 500A output.
  • HEAVY TRUCKS – building the matching charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles and fleets represents a critical innovation frontier on our journey to electrify transportation. Following extensive collaboration with industry-leading truck OEMs, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System delivers up to 1,200kW of continuous power — 20% more energy transfer than 1MW systems — providing heavy-duty vehicles with purpose-built single-outlet design for the energy they need during mandatory driver breaks. To support other use cases, such as CCS truck charging, a dual CCS and MCS option will also be available.
  • RETAIL – the award winning C50 Compact Charger complements the family as the slimmest charger in its category at just 9.3 inches depth, optimized for convenient charging during typical one-hour retail experiences. With its large touch display, the C50 takes the award-winning A400 experience even further — setting a new standard for consumer experience and very neatly echoing our own take on that “Goldilocks” timing zone for commercial charging.

ABB says that the result of its new approach are chargers that offer 99% plus uptime — a crucial statistic for commercial charging operations and a key factor to ensuring customer satisfaction. The new ABB E-mobility EVSE product family will be on display for the first time at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo (ACT Expo) in Anaheim, California next week, then again at Power2Drive in Munich, Germany, from May 7-9.

Electrek’s Take

BEV trucks and buses at ACT Expo in Long Beach; image by the author.
ACT Expo test drives; by the author.

The ACT Expo is one of – if not the most important sustainable trucking event in North America, featuring all the big names in heavy trucks, construction equipment, material handling, infrastructure – even Tier 1 suppliers. Mostly, though, it’s many fleet buyers’ only chance to test drive these zero emission trucks before writing a big PO (which just makes it even more important).

Electrek will be there again this year, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest news from press events and product reveals as it happens.

SOURCE | IMAGES: ABB E-mobility.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Whisper Aero ultralight aircraft scores $500K for “UltraQuiet” electric jet motor tests

Published

1 day ago

on

April 26, 2025

By

Whisper Aero ultralight aircraft scores 0K for

Whisper's "UltraQuiet" propulsion system to power acrobatic glider

Along with Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-based ultralight aircraft company Whisper Aero has secured a $500,000 grant to help advance the company’s innovative electric jet motor concept off the drawing board and onto the testing phase.

Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced plans to award $500,000 to Tennessee Tech and Whisper Aero through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.

“We look forward to using these award dollars to place students in internships working directly with Whisper Aero leaders,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. “By learning from an electric propulsion innovator like Whisper Aero, our students will gain invaluable perspective and can take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it right here in Tennessee.”

The grant will see a Whisper Aero glider fitted with a pair of the company’s eQ250 electric-powered jet “propulsors” for UltraQuiet flight. Tennessee Tech faculty and students will carry out copper-bird ground testing to ensure the safe integration of engines, batteries, and controllers, and kickstart Tennessee Tech’s new Crossville Mobility Incubator.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Those propulsors, by the way, are super cool.

UnltraQuiet WhisperDrive; via Whisper Aero.

Whisper Aero’s main claim to fame is its innovative UltraQuiet WhisperDrive (above). It’s effectively an electrically spun ducted fan jet engine that uses a large number of stiff composite fan blades inside a lightweight, acoustically treated duct. With so many blades, the Whisper Aero propulsor can push more air than a conventional prop while spinning much more slowly. As such, the “blade passage frequency” moves up to more than 16,000 Hz – outside the range of most human hearing but not, supposedly, high enough to freak out the beagles.

The Whisper Aero ultralight is effectively an Aériane Swift3 glider fitted with a pair of Whisper’s eQ250 propulsors, each capable of up to 80 lbs. of thrust. The Ultralight has a wingspan of over 40 ft with a maximum L/D of 35:1 and can be stressed to a design loading of +6/-4g, making it capable of some pretty impressive acrobatic feats.

The Swift3 glider is designed for a low speed, low power cruising speed of 45–55 knots with “just” 6.5 hp. Power-off glides from a few hundred feet showed a low sink rate, and a climb rate of 1,250 ft/min with full self-launching power (in other words: the Whisper glider doesn’t have to be towed by a launch vehicle, like a conventional ultralight glider).

Quiet cool

Dual WhisperDrive fans deliver ~160 lbf of thrust; via Whisper Aero.

Range under full power is about 109 miles with current battery tech, but it’s expected that range under the latest EPiC 2.0 energy batteries would rise to nearly 170 miles.

Nathan Millecam, CEO of Electric Power System, said, “EPiC 2.0’s leap in energy density and thermal performance has enabled a significant increase in range, a clear validation of our next-gen cell technology. We are impressed by what the Whisper team continues to achieve in advancing electric aviation.”

The press release concludes explaining that flight tests are expected to show that the Whisper Aero glider can be flown, “a few hundred feet away from neighborhoods without any disturbances, while carrying a 220 lbs. payload with full range,” which is all kind of ominous in today’s political climate, but still pretty neat from a purely tech perspective.

The TNGO grant follows a separate grant from NASA awarded last year, though that grant aims to develop the eQ250s – not as a propulsion system, but as a key component in future spacecraft ventilation systems.

Tennessee Tech announces TNGO grant

With support from TNECD’s Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, Tennessee Tech University and Whisper Aero are partnering to advance next-generation propulsion technology in the aerospace industry. This collaboration will enhance aerospace research and workforce development, ensuring Tennessee remains a leader in cutting-edge mobility solutions.

TNECD

SOURCE | IMAGES: TNECD; via eVTOL Insights, New Atlas.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Trending