Recharging your car battery with muscle power?!!

Keeping your body fit while recharging your e-mobile vehicle. This has now been possible in Baar since Friday. The municipality wants to break new ground with a pilot project, and to promote renewable energy at the same time.

It looks as if someone has placed a slightly older exercise bike on the small piece of grass in the Lättich car park in Baar. But the cable that connects the fitness equipment to a black column reveals that this system is a forward-looking project. The supposed fitness equipment is actually a electricity generator of the latest generation – powered by muscle power.

With this project, the municipality of Baar wants to promote energy independence and sustainable energy sources, explains local mayor (Gemeindepräsident)  Walter Lipp. The new system will enable owners of electric cars to charge them with their own muscle power in the future.

Generator supplements solar energy
This charging station is the first of its kind on the territory of the municipality of Baar. It was created in cooperation with the WWZ, as the responsible municipal councillor Zari Dzaferi explains. As the electricity is mainly generated by solar energy, the operation of the exercise bike is only necessary if the solar radiation is too weak. Zari Dzaferi adds:

"But if you enjoy outdoor physical activity, you can help with production of electricity, even in good weather conditions."

There are good reasons why the Baar pilot project is being implemented in the Lättich car park, explains Sonja Zeberg-Langenegger, municipal councillor (Gemeinderätin) and head of real estate. "We have enough space for the system there." Even more important, however, is the proximity to the swimming pool and its infrastructure: "If you charge your car with muscle power, you can then use the showers in the Lättich indoor and outdoor pool free of charge".

Municipal councillor Zari Dzaferi is leading the way: he is charging the electric car with muscle power. Mayor Walter Lipp and municipal councillor Sonja Zeberg are helping.
Photo: Maria Schmid, Baar

A shower will probably also be necessary after fully charging a car by exercise bike. It’s a fast charging station, according to  Zari Dzaferi. The pedalling speed has to be correspondingly high. "Anyone who pedals should therefore have a good physical condition," - as Zari Dzaferi himself demonstrates in the video:

This is how the new e-charging station in the municipality of Baar works.
Video: Municipality of Baar
https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/zentralschweiz/zug/baar-umweltfreundlich-strom-tanken-und-gleichzeitig-fit-bleiben-ld.2270562

Five new charging stations to be built
With the new charging station, Baar has now come closer to one of its annual targets for 2022. According to municipal president Walter Lipp, a total of five new parking spaces with charging stations are planned in these areas. "It is important to the municipality to accelerate the expansion of such charging stations." There are currently four public charging stations for electric cars in Baar.

The pilot project at the Lättich car park will now be tested for one year, and its use will be evaluated.:

Walter Lipp "If this is well received by the population, we will expand the offer with further such charging stations."

Various parking spaces have been provided For this purpose near gyms, where showers and cloakrooms are available. The pilot project will cost the municipality CHF 15,000.

Spoiler: this article was published on 1st April!