Designed by students at the University of Arizona, these turbines are able to harvest the wind generated by cars passing by. Like the giant windmills that dot the deserts, the highway turbines can turn the air into energy.
Estimates say that the turbines can create about 9,600 kWh per year. That would be great for powering traffic signals and other devices around the road.
Archinect [via AutoblogGreen via Gizmodo]
I like! I’m glad cities/states/the government are finally looking into other cleaner ways of making energy. Though this is only a concept, and designed by students (not the government), I do wish they implement this or at least something similar. It just makes sense. As said by Blake, traffic lights, street lamps, restaurant/gas station signs.. If these were only on the highway, any station/building off the highway could use the power directly.
Now that is a very interesting idea… never thought of that one… also makes for a fantastic bird/bug guillotine!
Jon
It is called stealing energy from your tank. Energy does not come from thin air. If the windmill is drawing power from passing traffic, that means traffic is being slowed down by the increased drag around that region. It would be okay to install it before the entrance to a toll booth where every car needs to slow down and the windmill is simply helping the motorists to apply the brake aerodynamically.
The idea of drawing power from traffic is not new. I saw a news segment on how someone installed some flexing panels on the road in front of a toll booth. When cars drive over the panels, they flex up and down an inch or so to generate power. Same concept but more machanical. The rippling effect of the road surface will slow down the traffic when the cars zoom by. But during a stop and go traffic jam, each car has to burn more gas to push through the rippling surface.
Unless each motorist sign a consent form to agree to contribute to this power generator, this is simply an act of stealing. Yes, the amount is negligible. It is like some bankers taking a penny from each account, the small amount does not change the fact that it is still stealing.
Hmm, regular highway traffic moves at about 50-70. And the turbines are fueled b the wind power which is ALREADY created by the passing cars. It won’t slow them down… Its not like it is blowing back at them. The turbines harness wind power which is already there.
Having a turbine spin off wind that is there already wouldn’t be stealing energy. The wind itself is already stealing energy by being in the way of the car. The car has to displace that air in order to move forward… As such, the air is displaced regardless of whether a turbine is present. So the tank/mileage is ALREADY being robbed. Might as well recycle some of that energy.
What I’m saying is: the turbine would in no way affect traffic at all.
7th grade physics anyone?
Even if it did ’steal gas’, would this not lower power bills? Kind of a pick and chose situation.
But I don’t see how it’d really slow the car down…the wind/energy made from the traffic would go in a hot wheels ‘loopty-loop’, bringing the wind/energy back around ‘pushing’ the traffic along. ..in theory, at least my theory…
Or what if they designed it where all the ‘excess’ energy escapes from the top, and not the bottom.
I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. But I still like the idea, I’m all for new clean ways of making/”stealing”… energy
Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier to take the energy from the waves in the ocean vs the wind waves above freeways? Although it would be fun watching the taggers trying to get their message on the blades.
response to ilya above. Do they start teaching “conservation of energy” in 7th grade physics yet? There is no free lunch, energy does not come out of thin air or just moving air in this case. When the turbines draw power from the wind around the highway, the moving traffic will feel the increased drag due to the additional load.
Compare it to a coal fueled power plant, you need to burn a ton of coal to spin the generator. So since the generator is already, the electricity is already a sunken cost. So why don’t you just offer a fix rate for electric power? No, the real physically world does not work like that. When the consumer draw power from the grid, the load of the generator increases and you have to burn two tons of coal to keep it running instead of one. It is the same law of physics applying here. Energy must come from somewhere. The collective traffic may needs to burn a few more tons of gasoline per year to zoom under the turbine compared to just an open road.
Someone got to pay for lunch because there is no free lunch.
In response to Nobody, are you saying that this turbine is going to create more wind drag then the force of lets say an eighteen wheeler. When i drive by an eighteen wheeler i can see that the wind generated by that truck will push my car back and forth, but i still i have never complained about how much gas those pesty tractor trailers have cost me.
What i’m saying is if you want to take the side of the republican on this, then talk about the looks of it, and how great it’s going to be to look at, or something else that might not make it aesthetically pleasing. instead of taking a great idea and slandering it and saying it will never work because everyone is going to have to sign a permission slip, jump on board and not tell whats wrong but help to improve on the idea.
We can see that it’s a concept by students, but if you look anywhere for this idea on the internet all you can see is this concept by these students on every sight. a photoshop picture that does look impractical but at the same time is a step in the right direction for harnessing the energy that we know we won’t stop producing anytime soon.
oh yeah soup kithens, i give free lunch every saturday at 11:00.
do they teach fluid dynamics in “7th grade physics” these days? i highly doubt these things, sitting a great deal above the road, are going to cause any change in the airflow around a car. the energy they gather would otherwise be dissipated as heat in the air.
having said that, i can hardly imagine the power harvested from said wind would amount to anything. the analysis in the linked page just talks about average winds, and then does some handwaving argument saying the wind speed will go up significantly due to the cars. i don’t see any actual engineering calculations on the page, just vague rambling of how great it would be.
i say that it wont be possible
becuz there might be traffic……and one car wont be able to provide electricity
Well i’m thimking that it could be a way to lower electricity bills in the future and to create a clean power source. Now I’m a republican but we still should take care of this earth just not over the limit. Cities in america are out of gas completely no gas at all they have to walk can’t you liberals think where not going to kill the earth and use all the resources gas is not the only resource there is my gpa just gave me a propane fueled car and there are car that are partialy powered by battery. this windmill thing is a good idea even for republicians plus isn’t abortion murder it is killing so what if it’s not born yet it’s living and it’s MURDER. Just a person
i want how i can make manwaly wind turbin in home
pless help me
thank you
plese send me in side pitcher turbin
Hmmm… Quite interesting, mostly because the use of clean ways to produce energy. But… think about all the passing by birds…