Sanyo Electric Co Ltd announced it will set up a "solar bicycle parking lot" at the Tokushima Prefectural Government Office in Japan to test its solar cells and rechargeable batteries targeting March 2009.
Hybrid electric bicycles will be charged using Sanyo's HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer) solar panels and Li-ion battery unit installed in part of the existing bicycle parking lot at the government office. By combining the solar panels and the secondary battery unit, it is possible to charge bicycles without using a commercial power supply even at night or on rainy days.
The Li-ion battery unit has an AC outlet and can be used as a power supply in the case of an emergency.
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