Piezoelectric Road Produces Electricity From Traffic
Engineers have created a new type of road capable of turning the vibration caused by cars into electricity.
The revolutionary new surface, created by engineers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, uses piezoelectric crystals embedded in the asphalt to generate up to 400 kilowatts of energy from a 1 kilometer stretch, enough to run eight electric cars.
Commenting on the innovation, a spokesman from the UK Environmental Transport Association said, “Many predict a massive shift to electric cars, and it may be the roads themselves that help provide some of the power needed.”
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The new surface is scheduled to be tested in Northern Israel later this month and, if successful, may be rolled out on a larger scale in the UK and Ireland.
If the system was rolled out on a large enough scale, and accompanied by a mass adoption of electric cars, it is possible that a virtuous energy loop could be created, capable of drastically reducing carbon emissions from transport. Even if electric cars fail to become as popular as anticipated by many in the industry, it is still possible that the new system could contribute to a significant reduction in overall economy-wide emissions, providing a much needed silver lining to the problem of heavy traffic.
Image Credit - kla4067 via flickr.com on a Creative Commons license
Mr. Greendoughnuts knows where true ground is.
Simply put, walk on sand and then on hard ground. Do you feel the difference?
From front-end to rear-end, even without the car in between doing push-up, you are talking about a gas driven piezo-electric generator. Try to market that item with efficiency as it’s main feature.
Why do people think that adding extra conversions from input to output somehow reduces losses or creates gains? You gota be kid’n me.
I went to “Hill Billy High School” and they learned me that much.
it’s the starting of electriaffic(electric+traffic)generation.here the use of ultracapacitors may store high energy and will result in more efficient energy storage.
installation of wind mill will not result in efficient generation and it will also increase the weight of car.
here one interesting thing is that we can use solar energy instead of using wind energy becoz 2-3 solar panels will result in remarkable energy.
mathematically speaking,a 38 watt solar panel can charge a 12 volt battery(40amp) within 2-3 hours.
I always get tickled when I read about this subject.
There is always someone that claims you have to Rob Peter to Pay Paul. I quote from above “This idea of harvesting energy from roads is just a moronic as the above logic. There is no such thing a free energy. It must come from some where.” Lets explore this. Yes this is a completely true statement. But, think about it in a simpler way. What goes up must come down. Call this “Parasitic Energy Harvesting” Taking advantage of something that is going to occur not matter what. Ok there is a hill in the hiway. Sure this hill is there it will always be there. So why not harvest the lost energy on the way down the hill. So the claim that the vehicle will use more energy to travel a road with piezoelectric generator in not true in the technical sense. We are harvesting the energy from gravity and or even inertia. Think of an elevator going to the top floor of the empire state building. We know it is going do this for the next 100 years. So why not capture the energy made on its way down.
So to conclude yes under typical conditions the above person is correct in its rawest form. But did not take into consideration gravity, kinetics or inertia, and is missing the value of the project.
[...] plans sound intriguing, and perhaps a little similar to the piezoelectric scheme devised by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology that generates electricity from passing traffic. If it does take off, the innovative approach could [...]
how can u say that piezoeletric substance is more retarding than asphalt……they should be similar in beheaviour to the cars
i think the main drawback is its cost and maintainence on such large scale!but if able to reduce to cost factor then its such a divine step in energy reaserch!good job