Solar-powered coffee bikes from Germany

Germany’s Liontron said it can prepare 300 cups of coffee per day from the PV modules and storage tech on its bicycles for beverage vendors. This means its mobile coffee shops can operate without grid connections.

Image: Liontron

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From pv magazine Germany

Espresso, cappuccino, flat whites – you need a lot of electricity to prepare coffee. And it is sometimes not easy for the operators of mobile coffee shops to obtain energy in public places.

Germany battery specialist Liontron has developed a solution for this: a mobile coffee-shop bike that uses built-in lithium-iron phosphate batteries to provide enough electricity to prepare coffee all day long. Two PV modules with outputs of 200 W each charge the batteries.

The three 100 amp-hour, 24 volt batteries feed a 2,000 W Victron inverter, which converts the battery power to 230 V. The company said this can be used to prepare 300 cups of coffee per day with the integrated dual-boiler coffee machine and two coffee grinders.

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When the sun is shining, the two roof-mounted, flexible, ultra-light 200 W solar panels provided by German manufacturer GreenAkku can recharge the three batteries. The energy requirement of the coffee bike is around 300 W per hour.

Liontron said the batteries can be replaced without special tools if they are damaged. All components – such as the cells, the electronic battery management system, and the Bluetooth module – are screwed together, not glued or welded. The company will present its new coffee bike at the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf, which will be held from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.

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