Piezoelectric road harvests traffic energy to generate electricity
Piezoelectric road harvests traffic energy to generate electricity . The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electrical current or voltage and the system is expected to scale up to 400 kilowatts from a 1-kilometre stretch of dual carriageway. This means that parasitic energy of busy roads, railroads and runways near population centers can be converted into electrical energy that can run public lighting, or fed back into the grid. Isreali engineers are about to begin testing a 100 metre stretch of roadway embedded with a network of Piezo Electric Generators (IPEG™). The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electrical current or voltage and the system is expected to scale up to 400 kilowatts from a 1-kilometre stretch of dual carriageway. ...