As EnerFusion owners Joe Kobus and Tom Davis will tell you, everyone who travels on a plane—from laptop-toting business professionals to cell phone yapping teenagers—has a sob story about how they can never find a power source in an airport.
Two years ago, they started developing a new technology to address this problem. Now they have the “Power Dok,” which is a freestanding power station equipped with two three-prong outlets.
Power Doks look like computer servers and cost about $1 for a 10-minute charge. They will be placed near terminals and can be loacted under airport seats or at the end of each row of seats, giving travelers immediate, ample access to power.
“We’re effectively adding plugs to an area that would otherwise have to be added with a major redevelopment,” Kobus says.
Rather than pulling from the airport’s power source, each Power Dok will run on an internal battery. Kobus and Davis say they plan to have a EnerFusion location near every airport hosting a Power Dok so they can change out the batteries.
EnerFusion will introduce the Power Dok to Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport this fall.
“This is the just the beginning of something that’s really going to develop,” Davis says, noting that the Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport’s played an invaluable role in the product launch. Davis says the Capital Region International Airport is the perfect place to launch the Power Dok because the airport’s always been an innovator and hosted one of the first airlines to let users reserve tickets on the airline Web site.
“This airport has always been seen as an innovative airport and now the nation is watching Lansing as we continue to innovate,” Davis says.
Once the product pilot stage is finished, EnerFusion hopes to expand Power Dok’s presence in other markets.
Source: Denyse Ferguson, LEAP
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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