ELECTRICITY-GENERATING ROAD

Electricity-generating road under development in Israel

December 20, 2008 in Mr Green Archive

By Justin Couture, Sympatico/MSN Autos

Could roads generate electricity as well? Here’s an interesting thought: What if roads could generate electricity?

Though it sounds like a farfetched idea, a small stretch of road in Israel capable of producing electricity will undergo testing next month.

Underneath the surface of asphalt, roadway engineers fitted a layer of piezoelectric crystals, which generate an electric current when pressure is applied to them. This would allow the road to capture the energy that a car or truck transfers to the ground when it drives by.

Its developers say that the one-kilometre stretch of road is capable of generating 400 kW of energy, enough to power eight small cars. Now, there aren’t any details about how this figure was calculated, but it’s a promising idea especially if multi-laned highways and traffic-plagued urban areas are considered.

The Environmental Transport Association (ETA) says that if these crystals were installed on every stretch of motorway in Britain, the output of electricity would be sufficient to run 34,500 small cars.

One neat tie-in with the electric road is that Israel will be starting an electric car program in conjunction with Nissan. As the project ramps up and vehicle sales increase, these roads could play an important part in developing the “fuel” for electric cars by contributing back to the main electric grid.

For many years scientists and engineers have tried to figure out a way to generate electricity from roads and passing cars. This could potentially be the most effective way of doing it. Other ideas include embedding solar cells into the road surface and installing small windmills by the roadside that harvest the wind produced by passing vehicles.

Source: http://blogs.carpoint.ca/2008/12/electricity-gen.html


thanks to Nikon - Man for the tip