Posted on 10/06/2009 5:50:36 AM PDT by SJackson
(IsraelNN.com) Two new Israeli methods for the production of electricity are on the table: Car-travel on highways, and a micro-turbine home system.
A group of investors succeeded on Monday in producing electricity from the travel of cars along a highway. The experiment was carried out on Route 4, between Haifa and Tel Aviv, and has already elicited great interest in the Israeli and international scientific communities.
The investors have begun talks to install their technology on various highways throughout Israel. Prof. Chaim Abramovitch, chairman of the new company, told Army Radio that his system could provide the electricity needs of thousands of homes each year.
In addition, scientists from Ariel University in Samaria and a Russian research center in St. Petersburg have developed an environmentally-friendly home system that produces heat and electricity. The system is based on a ceramic gas micro-turbine. Israel’s Chief Scientist has dedicated a half-million dollars towards the project, which will be built and marketed by the CMT start-up company under the auspices of the LN Innovative Technologies Center in Haifa.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
I live near the "Grapevine" in central CA. It is about a 10-12 mile stretch of I-5 that goes up and down a 5-7% grade. This is the most travelled Fwy in CA and a steady stream of trucks come down this hill daily. These rigs weigh as much as 80,000 lbs and use their brakes/gears to keep below the posted 35mph truck speed.
This is a lot of energy potential if it could be harnessed.
I wonder if the micro turbine can be installed in a fireplace flue?
That post had a point that the energy had to come from somewhere and it would decrease the energy of the car so the car would get worse mileage. The only way this is avoided is if you place the generators where cars would normally slow down anyway like downhill or approching a stop sign (a traffic light would be a problem because you only stop half the time), so energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat in the brakes would be converted to electricity.
From the now missing post #4:
The only problem with this is that, in the process of harnessing that energy, you make the cars get worse gas mileage.
They energy has to come from somewhere.
that model will greatly upset the eco-greenies who want to hook you to their Smart Grid so that they can control how much electricity you use via remote control from The Hague
God continues to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel throughout the millenia until now, yet many who profess Christianity do not know this in these, the latter days of the Grace age body of Christ.
If natural gas is used as the fuel, home heating costs could rise for a lot of folks.
To slow down trucks on the downgrade, you would need magnetic stators underneath and around the road, that would be attracted to the trucks. As these stators spin, they could, theoretically, turn an shaft and generate electricity.
The same system could be used in reverse to push trucks up a hill, of course. This would permit the use of smaller engines on the trucks, which would make for better efficiency in other regimes.
that’s how hybrids work
the battery provides the storage medium
All electric cars and hybrids that I know of use regen braking.
I would be interested to see the hummer hybrids the the Military tested in Iraq.
of course turbine engine folks have been working on this for decades and not in commercial usage due to cost and reliability issues....
If the mat requires a deflection of the roadway, then I'm sure a resulting loss of mileage to the passing vehicles will result.
The article should cover the most important point: where does the energy come from. If it is from the car, then it has a cost - and would only be useful as an alternative to stringing grid wires, say, to an electric light.
If some or all of the energy comes from the rolling friction of the tires, then it is essentially recovering wasted energy.
Please do not change the original titles of article.
Surely you meant that 'palestinians' are hard at work on this as well as other new technology.
I have always contended; automobiles should have concrete tires and rubber highways, it just got screwed up from the beginning.
All they need is a bunch of 112 meter windturbines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.