Promising tests for MotionPower system to generate electricity from traffic

CASPER

CASPER

THE FRIENDLY GHOST
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Apparently, the ongoing testing of the MotionPower system for generating electricity from the movement of cars and light trucks - as reported here previously - is paying dividends. New Energy, the company developing the technology, reports it can produce a 25-fold increase in the system’s capacity to capture kinetic energy from moving vehicles, bringing the commercialization of the MotionPower system another step closer to reality.

In addition to the increased energy output, the next generation MotionPower prototype also includes several advances to increase the durability of the system, as well as lower its maintenance costs. These latest refinements maximize the amount of electricity generated without disrupting the driver or vehicle or robbing a vehicle of the energy it needs to accelerate. This is because the system is designed to be installed in locations where vehicles are required to reduce speed, such as toll plazas, rest areas and drive-thrus, meaning the system only makes use of vehicle energy that would be required to slow down.

Key to the anticipated 25-fold increase in capacity over the original prototype are design enhancements to an energy buffer and storage device inside the system.

This energy buffer-storage apparatus is used in the MotionPower system as an efficient capture device for energy that can otherwise be lost during short ‘impulse’ loading – the event that occurs when a car quickly drives over the MotionPower device to create an immediate burst of energy. Engineers are also modifying the design to better manage ‘torque’ impulses created by a vehicle’s weight and rolling kinetic energy as it passes over the device.

Meanwhile, improvements to the MotionPower system’s energy buffer-storage device include the optimization of the level of energy captured and delivered, optimization of the energy storage per unit weight, and a reduction in the friction drag of the device.
 
R

ricklbert

UHF JUNKIE
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Smart highway generates electricity

Friday, November 6, 2009

The way of the future is smart, economical and even generates electricity. Down with pollution, building more roads!

One way would be so much more than just a stupid piece of asphalt to get from A to B.. That is the philosophy behind the young U.S. company Solar Roadways. This company, founded by a modest couple from rural Idaho engineers, has developed a prototype of a way that generates electricity.

Last month the company received $ 100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to further develop this technology and market. Within a few years, the asphalt-solar panel on the market. The aim is to the American (and European) roads in true power to change.

The system consists of panels of 3.5 to 3.5 meters that each 7.6 kilowatt hours of electricity a day production. Should all U.S. Interstate highways are covered with these panels, the main road then produces three times the energy of the United States, so the designers have been quantified.

But whether it is going to happen naturally open to question. This is cheap way of generating energy which is not yet. Each panel costs $ 6900. For a broad application of this technique are therefore needed billions.

Solar Roadways is therefore focuses mainly on local American provisional government. This is nice small and financially sound manageable. An American town, a local piece of mile four-lane highway with panels to cover. It generates enough electricity for five hundred houses, at reasonable cost.

Generators road has multiple layers. The top consists of a rijoppervlak made from recycled glass. It sounds smooth, but a new process is the glass away just as rough as a regular lane, while water through small openings can run away quickly. The main feature of this top is that sunlight through leaves, which falls on solar panels in the road. These convert the light into energy, which means electricity. Among the panels is a concrete base layer, which gives away strength and durability.

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Photo: TheFriendlyFiend.

The smart way is not only green, it can be much more than a traditional piece of asphalt. Thus, in addition to solar panels also have LED lights installed in. This gives the administrator of the way the opportunity to warnings such as a maximum speed on the road to display. Changes the maximum speed - eg busy - then the road manager the text on the roadway with one-touch adjust.


Also the number of lanes can be adjusted to the range of movement. Such 'shifting lanes' in the Netherlands has for some years experimenting. In colder areas, the smart way to be equipped with heating wires, so the surface can not freeze. Naturally, stove and lights powered by solar energy is generated during the day. Because the roads are provided with power lines, the highway may also be an alternative for many cables that are still running above ground.

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Source: Faqt | Weten Begrijpen Verbazen
 
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