Renewable Energy and Lifesaving Drones
How the Underlying Infrastructure of Society Is Built
At well over 500,000 pounds and 442 feet, a Siemens Gamesa wind turbine can tower over its surroundings. Yet, depending on the wind resource, just one of these turbines can provide renewable energy to 400–500 homes constantly, while only taking about two to three weeks to build and construct.
A small fleet of these wind turbines can power a small city. A large fleet of them can eliminate the carbon footprint of hundreds of thousands of homes.
A few technologists — including myself — had the chance to inspect the components of these energy titans at their manufacturing and training facility in Orlando, Florida. It was part of Siemens USA’s annual Innovation Day, where they bring some of the most interesting companies using their software and hardware together to talk about how they’re changing the world.
You can get a taste of what goes into the construction of one of these wind turbines here:
The turbines are complex machines, complete with an enormous nacelle and hundreds of moving parts, but once operational, they essentially run themselves. A control room in the outskirts of Orlando monitors the health of each wind turbine in the region, and when an anomaly occurs, the control room can reduce or increase its energy output or even shut off the turbine.
Even the crews tasked with repairing and maintaining these machines work like clockwork. They are trained extensively on rescue procedures, safety protocols, and emergency situations. Many of the people working these machines are veterans, adept to any situation that may arise.
Saving Lives and Fostering Entrepreneurship
The turbines weren’t the only fascinating technologies on display at Siemens Innovation Day. Several new technologies really stood out for me as making a global impact:
Zipline
Zipline, the lifesaving drone company that uses a network of inexpensive drones to deliver blood and medicine in record time across Rwanda and Ghana. In countries where road systems are simply not an option, Zipline’s network of drones can deliver blood from one side of a country to another in record time.
They are backed by some of Silicon Valley’s best VCs, including Sequoia, A16Z, and GV.
Part of the secret to their success is the design of their drones, which can be launched using a catapult system and can fly for miles inexpensively and often within 30 minutes. Zipline use Siemens NX CAD software to design their drones and optimize their drones for any situation. The use of Siemens NX CAD software has sped up the design process while eliminating issues that can result in delayed shipments.
You can learn more about the amazing Zipline drone network from one of my favorite YouTubers, Wendover Productions:
Hackrod
Out in California, a new company founded by a team of technologists, entertainment professionals, and racers is developing a new way for anyone to go from concept to hardware — all within a matter of weeks.
Hackrod is like Minecraft, but for hardware — you can use game mechanics to design your own hardware, from bikes to cars — and through its manufacturing partners — print and assemble the parts in a greatly reduced time span.
I had a chance to conduct a live interview of the CEO, Mike “Mouse” McCoy, who may be better known for his career as a professional motorcycle racer and for directing “Act of Valor”, the feature film featuring real US Navy SEALs.
“What’s the biggest CAD package on the planet? It’s Minecraft,” said McCoy in our interview. “The kids are building for fun all day long. So naturally, we said that’s going to be their native language — gaming. So let’s just take the industrial capabilities we have with Siemens and merge them with the gaming world, and connect the digital twin of the physical product with its virtual representation.”
Hackrod uses Siemens’ industrial stack to help print and implement the ideas that are built in Hackrod’s Autonomo engine into reality. You can learn more from my full interview with Mouse McCoy:
Final Thoughts
One of the most difficult challenges that faces engineers is bringing concepts into the physical world, whether it’s a 500,000 lb wind turbine or a new concept for a motorcycle or a lifesaving drone. But companies like Siemens have built the base infrastructure to allow these concepts to become reality.
As Barbara Humpton, the CEO of Siemens USA, told me at Innovation Day in Orlando, Siemens doesn’t fit neatly into the B2C or B2B buckets. Instead, the company thinks of itself as B2S — Business to Society, providing the underlying infrastructure to power society, from energy to smart cities to the products we use.
As a small experiment, I suggest just thinking a bit about all the technologies that had to be developed and the people behind them the next time you are trying out a new car, using an elevator, or turning on your lights.
—
This post is sponsored by Siemens USA, because they are awesome and I love their technology. You can read my previous post in this series, about the technologies that power New York City, here.
