I can't imagine this hasn't been thought of yet, but I haven't seen it myself. The idea is simple: all the kinetic energy that driving over a road creates needs to be captured, stored and redistributed. Huge amounts of kinetic energy is spent as cars drive over roads, highways and bridges. Certainly it could be gathered and stored simply for the street lights that are connected to that patch, but it would be great if the energy might be sent down the line to power neighborhoods or simply sent back to the main grid. The cement/asphalt/concrete would have to be re-engineered, or at least be dug up and the capture system put underneath/inside. The best solution would be to only do it on high-traffic areas and only do it on newly installed roads for optimal returns.
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Wind turbines turned on their side? Get a pinwheel affect from the "gusts" of wind generated from passing cars. More importantly go the OTHER way, small (impossible to make) wind turbines ON CARS that power/recharge the battery so people can pimp their ride w/ TVs and playstations with a fraction of that power coming from the fact that battery will be charging from the fact that the car is in motion. (had that damn pinwheel on car idea in my head for a while)
ReplyDeleteyeah dave, that's a good thought. The only thing you might consider is the drag that the little turbines likely will add to the car. Would it offset the power generation? Perhaps every car should instead have regenerative breaking like the Prius.
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