Israel's Bright Sparks Invent 'Electric' Road (Turning traffic into electricity)

Sky News ^ | July 12, 2011 | Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent

[2ndDivisionVet]

Scientists in Israel say they have invented a way of turning traffic into electricity.

The bright sparks at the country's Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa have developed a road that generates power when vehicles pass over it.

And they hope the technology will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

In a university car park, Haim Abramovich and his team run a heavy truck repeatedly over a special stretch of tarmac.

"The name of the game is harvesting," he told Sky News. "Harvesting means energy which is available but is going to waste.

"So what I want to is to harvest part of that energy and make it useful. This is the name of the game and this is my dream."

Making his dream come true are hundreds of rugged metallic crystals. When put under pressure they generate electricity.

So lined up in special pads buried under the tarmac, they create power. It is called 'piezo' electricity. It has been around a while, but never used like this before.

One truck can generate 2,000 volts, but to create useful electricity you need a lot of amps too and that requires many pads over hundreds of metres and a high percentage of traffic, preferably moving quickly.....

[douginthearmy]

Hey if we make a road that generates electricity and run electric cars on it then we can have the cars generate the electricity that they run on. Then I won’t have to pay my rent! Hope and change! Yes we can!

[UCANSEE2]

It will work too, as long as you add a Fan on the top of the car to run an extra generator to handle the air conditioning system.

[douginthearmy]

Don’t worry about A/C.. one of the best things about Hopium, it’s cool.

[JimmyMc]

After the EPA gets through with their red tape, and the “greenies” make a hissy fit, this might work in a 100 years. H3ll, they might let us drill for oil before this happens.

[James C. Bennett]

I’ve heard of this before, and it is most certainly a poorly-thought idea.

What next, windmill-powered aircraft?

[TangoLimaSierra]

Another interesting idea:

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/08/super-tough-solar-panels-could-make-every-road-into-a-power-plant/

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/08/super-tough-solar-panels-could-make-every-road-into-a-power-plant/

[the invisib1e hand]

very cool, but...i guess you could harvest the potential electricity from the flapping of birds’ wings by strapping little piezo-electric harvesters to them...but is it worth it?

[mazda77]

So lined up in special pads buried under the tarmac, they create power. It is called 'piezo' electricity. It has been around a while, but never used like this before.

Interesting concept but the every present threat of potholes would turn the lights out, especially during the winter. All of these green energy "solutions" do nothing to replace fossil fuels and can only be counted upon to charge storage banks to be converted to something usefull but reasonably never for an on-demand basis. To date, only nukes do the job.

[ctdonath2]

Been wondering when someone would pursue this. There’s a lot of wasted energy there. Heard of a farmer who heats his buildings from waste heat gathered from water pipes running under the nearby freeway.

[calex59]

It is called 'piezo' electricity.

Anyone familiar with Radios(or other electronic devices)are familiar with piezo electric devices. Crystals are piezo electric, if you make a crystal vibrate, it produces electicity, if you shoot electricity to a crystal it vibrates, which in turn produces more electricity. This is a very useful characteristic in electronic devices, such as TVs, computers and Radios.

The same thing this article talks about was mentioned several years ago by someone in the US, can't remember who it was or the exact year, but the person wanted to wire up our roads with piezo electric devices to produce power. It remains to be seen if this would be practical.

[aumrl]

had a pair of skis that did this 20 yrs ago

[Moltke]

Great! Someone's finally found a way to circumvent the 2nd law of thermodynamics! /s

"The name of the game is harvesting," he told Sky News. "Harvesting means energy which is available but is going to waste.

What energy is going "to waste"? The energy that propells the truck down the road? So now there'll be less forward propulsion by sapping some of that energy to generate some electric energy - with less than 100% efficiency.

Sheesh!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

It is called 'piezo' electricity... One truck can generate 2,000 volts, but to create useful electricity you need a lot of amps too and that requires many pads over hundreds of metres and a high percentage of traffic...

IOW, this scheme would be, at best, part of a conservation approach, like using the power plant cooling grid to melt the ice and snow on the downtown sidewalks.

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[samtheman]

If the pads under the road create extra resistance to the turning of the wheels of the vehicles on the road, then it’s not free energy, is it?

[wideminded]

What energy is going "to waste"? The energy that propells the truck down the road?

There may be energy available from the compression of the road which is normally dissipated as heat and which can be extracted without increasing rolling friction.

According to the website of the company founded by the researcher mentioned in this article, the invention "does not change the MPG of the vehicle".

[Moltke]

There may be energy available from the compression of the road which is normally dissipated as heat and which can be extracted without increasing rolling friction.

OK, let us take as a given that there is a certain percentage of energy lost to 'compression of the road' (no argument from me on that point as a matter of fact) - never mind 'rolling friction' which is a wanted and neccessary property of a road surface under varying wheather conditions (rain, cold - you need traction for roadholding and braking). But how much does it cost in piezo technology investment per mile of road to recuperate *that* energy? It would be much cheaper to construct the road with just that much less compression in the first place.

[cookcounty]

"Heard of a farmer who heats his buildings from waste heat gathered from water pipes running under the nearby freeway."

Come again???

[ctdonath2]

The county built a highway across a corner of his land without permission (even eminent domain has rules). He blew it up. Kinda committed to building there, the county conceded to his demands: he built a network of water pipes under the road designed to absorb the waste heat of heavy vehicles pounding the pavement. The resulting energy gathered heats his farm buildings.

[allmost]

A road surface that is designed to compress will necessarily waste more gas. Everybody gets lower mpg’s and the greenies say they need $100+ billion for more roads. First Law of Thermodynamics Fail.