Conversion of Movement into electricity

By Arushi Aggarwal

INTRODUCTION:-

The concept is to generate renewable energy by our vehicles.

Electricity Generating Road Ribs is a conceptual design that makes vehicles generate renewable energy on the highways.

So we use this idea of producing electricity by vehicles

Now you are  thinking that why we choose this only, why not other and how can we convert all this into electricity?

Road network of India is the largest road networks (3.314 million kilometres) in the world and India's estimated population to be 1,129,866,154 and there are an estimated 90 million vehicles in India, of which 5 millions are commercial vehicles.

So why not we use this useless heat which produces at every instant of time and we all are wasting it.

And now our population is increasing day by day and vehicle facilities too so this is the reason we think of it

Till now most widely used form of renewable energy is hydroelectricity. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, and has a considerably lower output level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) than fossil fuel powered energy plants.

But this only fulfils 20% need of total electricity and there are many disadvantages too.

Ecosystem damage and loss of land. Large reservoirs required for the operation of hydroelectric power stations result in submersion of extensive areas upstream of the dams, destroying biologically rich and productive lowland

Siltation::When water flows it has the ability to transport particles heavier than itself downstream. This has a negative effect on dams and subsequently their power stations, particularly those on rivers or within catchment areas with high siltation. Siltation can fill a reservoir and reduce its capacity to control floods along with causing additional horizontal pressure on the upstream portion of the dam....

Flow shortage::Changes in the amount of river flow will correlate with the amount of energy produced by a dam. Lower River flows because of drought, climate change or upstream dams and diversions will reduce the amount of live storage in a reservoir therefore reducing the amount of water that can be used for Hydroelectricity. The result of diminished river flow can be power shortages in areas that depend heavily on hydroelectric power.

Methane emissions (from reservoirs)

Dam failure.

We also have many other resources but as we discussed earlier that the population is rapidly increasing and the rate of generation of electricity is not accordingly increasing, so we use this concept of producing electricity

From where we get the idea?

Metatech Corporation develops solutions for electromagnetic environmental problems. It offers test equipment, wave generators and couplers, testers and oscillators and the second one is piezoelectric sensors that uses to measure the electricity resulting from pressure, acceleration, strain or force by converting them to an electric signal.

The sensors are either directly mounted into additional holes into the cylinder head or the spark/glow plug is equipped with a built in miniature piezoelectric sensor

What’s happening right now?

Among the various means of transportation, highways cover the widest and in effect the greatest area of our precious landmass. In context of the present scenario, spaces required for energy generation are becoming scarce day by day, and yet paradoxically no substantial effort has been made to make use of the very spaces incorporated by the highways themselves. Make no mistake - solar panels have been laid beside roads, wind turbines have been installed in breezy areas; but the highways themselves continue to be the least utilized ones.

Solar Roadways

The Solar Roadway is a prototype of an 'intelligent' road with solar panels imbued onto the road itself. Along with generating clean electricity, these panels can also provide data about damages and other information, by the help of microprocessing boards embedded in them. The processor's Radio Frequency Identification tags could be used to track vehicles as well.

The indirect economic advantage of this setup is the revenue generated by the road in form of electricity. Henceforth the costs incurred by thermal power plants would be significantly reduced, and such roadways can be maintained by the new found financial relief.

Solar Arch on Highways

The Solar Arch is a concept formulated by industrial designer Tyson Steele. It will provide covering for rural roads that in turn can generate renewable solar energy for off-grid highway lighting. The Solar Arch can also supplement electricity demands in neighboring low capacity required areas. Other advantages of this visionary concept include - protection of the road from hails and icing during winter, and the sustenance of cooling effect during summer.

 Jet Stream Super-Highway

This unique concept features vehicles extracting energy from the road infrastructure and roads in turn drawing energy from the environment. Based on an open-return wind tunnel design that produces a continuous stream of air flow from the environment, the roadway is shaped like a half-pipe in cross section. It has a series of solar-powered turbines and fans hovering above to push air into the road pathway, in addition to continuously drawing air at a controlled rate by outer drawing vents on the flanks - forming a cycle effect. The solar panels lined on the upper surface of the road make it a completely efficient green energy design. Moreover sensors communicate with vehicles on the road for necessary fine tuned wind adjustments.

E Turbine on the Highways

Conceptualized by industrial designer Pedro Gomes and aptly named the E Turbine, it is basically a wind generation system that uses the air movement emanated from passing traffic to produce and accumulate energy. Supposedly it can also work with street and road lighting, information panels and emergency phones. Placed between lanes, the system generates energy from air movement, which is then transferred to a main battery for storage as well as source.

Green Roadway Project - Solar and wind generators mounted on Highways

It is based upon the green dictum of endless highways becoming metamorphosed into renewable energy generators, which could one day power our cities with clean energy and can also offer electricity for roadside charging of electric vehicles. The Green Roadway Project makes use of strings of solar panels, wind turbines and geothermal devices, in order to convert such natural resources into electricity.

Concept Road Ribs that can make your vehicle generate renewable energy

Electricity Generating Road Ribs is a conceptual design that makes vehicles generate renewable energy on the highways. Researchers believe that even the most efficient cars can’t convert the entire energy in fuels to usable energy and a major percentage of the available energy is wasted. These Road Ribs help convert some of this waste into a usable form, which can later be utilized to power highways lights or charge electric cars.

1.      Solar Road Bike Path

Electricity generating road ribs:

A moving vehicle makes the rib move as well, which helps generate renewable energy. Generated electricity is stored in a battery installed near the roadside. Once charged, the battery can be used to power any electrical device or may also be used at electric car charging stations. The ribs have been designed to withstand heavy trucks and cars without showing any signs of wear and tear.

Recent articles have shown that scientists can now transfer electricity wirelessly. So, all we'd need to do is pop a wireless electricity receiver into a car. Car generates electricity by moving along the road. Car moves along the road by generated electricity. Granted, all roads would need to be replaced to do this. But if we could start over, and the technology was available. Seems this would be ideal for both saving gas, and a greener planet

Turning Road Traffic into Electricity

 It is indeed a good point that the estimates on how many houses this could power is overly generous, to say the least. One thing we don't know, though, is if the 'Dragon Power Station' is only a prototype/proof of concept or if it is close to the best that can be done. This makes a difference. Prototypes are often sub-optimal compromises because you usually need to show that your idea is working before you can get financing and credibility to allow you to do what you really want to do. Another question without answer at the moment is whether the 'plates' used by this system are softer than asphalt or not. They probably are to extract the maximum amount of energy, but maybe not. If they aren't much softer than asphalt, the system wouldn't extract much more energy from the trucks than the road would on its own (via friction and deformation). It might be the equivalent of hitting one or two potholes (except that potholes don't produce electricity). Still, it's definitely not a free lunch.

But lets assume that the plates are quite a bit softer than asphalt, or that they depress into the road slightly and the truck has to expand energy to climb back up. Maybe the next step is to build a power station at a place where you want to 'steal' energy from traffic. A downhill lane with a stop sign at the bottom where vehicles need to slow down, for example. They'd be hitting the brakes and dissipating the energy as heat anyway, so you might as well turn part of that energy into electricity.

A group of Israeli engineers have created a system that allows certain types of roads to generate electricity just by driving over them. The Israeli engineers behind the project claim that a 1km stretch of the power-generating asphalt will generate 400kW - enough power to run eight small cars.

The system works by embedding tiny piezoelectric crystals into the road. When cars drive over the crystals, they are 'squeezed' and thus generate a small electrical charge. The new 'electric road' will be tested next month when engineers in Israel drive over a stretch of tarmac embedded with the tiny piezoelectric crystals.

According to the Environmental Transport Association (ETA), if the system was installed on every stretch of British motorway it would generate enough energy to run 34,500 small cars. The director at the ETA, Andrew Davis, predicts that with the mass roll-out of electric vehicles in the near future, "it may be that roads themselves will provide some of the new fuel - certain vehicles could be powered entirely by the roads on which they drive."

The system differs to another electricity-generating road we reported earlier, developed by a Californian local. That system uses the kinetic energy of a truck barrelling down a highway to compress tanks of hydraulic fluid located in plates on the road surface. This creates a pumping action that can turn a generator and produce electricity.

While the Israeli project is still undergoing testing, the hydraulic plate system is expected to be used by Oakland terminal operator SSA to supply around 5% of its energy needs.        

Four Methods Of Generating Electricity For Powering Highways

Do you recognize the image of yourself jumping on your toes on the beach, in a hurry to reach the shore and get to the cool water. Well, the same happens to the asphalt our cars roll on. Why not use that heat to power things on highways and thus save tons of carbon dioxide a year?

The first and the most obvious would be to put solar panels on the barriers that divide the highway, to create electricity for lighting and road signs.

The second would be to embed water pipes into the asphalt, and collect the energy in the form of heat, which can further drive steam turbines and produce usable power. “One property of asphalt is that it retains heat really well,” he said, “so even after the sun goes down the asphalt and the water in the pipes stays warm. My tests showed that during some circumstances, the water even gets hotter than the asphalt,” says graduate student Andrew Correia, who also built a prototype of such a system.

The third idea proposes inserting thermoelectric materials into the asphalt. Thermoelectrics harvest the heat difference between their two ends, so embedding them into the ground with the ends at different depths would generate electricity. Highways could be defrosted with the obtained energy and would ease the work of those special utility trucks that clean the asphalt in winter.

The forth one is - consists of embedding solar panels into the asphalt.

The Advantages :

1. Energy generating highways can produce the additional energy output required for residences and even industries.

2. This form of energy generation is totally based upon renewable energy source, which in effect reduces the effects of pollution significantly.

3. Notably lessens our dependence on conventional sources like coal, nuclear etc.

4. Expected to be a much cheaper source of energy generation in the future, after the initial setup.

The Impact :

We should talk about the radically green impact such innovative projects and conceptions would inevitably have. Environmentally friendly in every way - right from reducing the effects of greenhouse gases, down to resource conservation, this i s the righteous way to progress into the future