See Innowattech Collect Energy From the Road, In Action
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv 
on 12.26.08
Green sites have been commenting on the "energy parasite": Innowattech, including our own Lloyd. The Israeli company has developed a system using energy harvesting piezoelectric crystals to sequester the mechanical energy generated on highways, the runway and the railway.
On December 30th, the company opens its tech to you the public to come see for yourself.
Too good to be true? Come see it in action and judge for yourself: the public is invited to attend a demonstration of the technology on December 30, 2008 at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. Details on the company website.
According to my friend Daniel on Green Prophet, "No stone is left unturned in our desperate search for energy sources to wean us from our dependence on fossil fuels. Sources of primary renewable energy, like solar, wind, and geothermal are the primary focus, but some overlooked sources are also getting attention, because every little bit counts."
We've seen reports on ways humans can generate electricity from stationary workout bikes, dance club floors and Japanese subway stations.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The vibrations caused by the vehicles are transformed into an electric current by piezoelectric generators (IPEG), solid state crystals that convert mechanical stress into current or voltage. The IPEG are connected to electrical storage or and electric grid and can be used for lighting, or eventually for charging electric vehicles.
Additional benefits is that the system records weight, frequency and speed of the vehicles, giving extra information to“create smart roads”, ones that can be optimized for traffic flow, to reduce congestion and reduce pollution further, reports Daniel.
"While this clever solution does not create its own energy, it can still provide commercial amounts, an estimated 500 kW per kilometer for busy highways. The company presents a cost table comparing various power technologies, although the numbers they present are different from the ones I'm familiar with (for example, as far as I know, solar power is on the order of 30 cents per kWh, and the payback times mentioned for the subsidized photovoltaic systems in Israel is about 10 years)."
MAKE YOUR OWN COMPARISONS:
More on energy harvesting:
Highway Robbery: Piezoelectric Roadways
Revolving Door Generates Energy, Maybe
Japan's Producing Electricity at Train Station Gates
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there was a simular test roadway built back in the 80's by dot. it used a different technology like the shaking self charging batteryless flashlights. spring loaded magneto under roadway would move a magnet past a coil. the spring would reset it back to it's normal position for the next vehicle. the power charged a capacitor bank which charged a battery bank which was converted from dc to ac & fed into the grid. it could produce about 300kw per mile using just one lane.
the d.c. beltway could provide all it's power, even to run the metro it was estimated if just the beltway alone was converted.
I'm not convinced that this will be free energy. I wonder how gas mileage will fair with a road that moves. The energy has to come from some where.
The road *already* moves. Asphalt isn't a perfectly rigid solid, it gives and it vibrates and a tiny compression wave even proceeds your car. And all that energy, right now, is wasted. Goes to heating the roadway, in the end.
All this system does is harness that already-wasted power. If the peizoelectric roadbed is more rigid than traditional roads you might even see a (very small) increase in fuel economy.
I understand your skepticism, as it sounds almost too good to be true, but remember:
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch... but there is such a thing as leftovers!
So you want to "tax" road users and produce electricity from their gasoline and diesel? This idea almost makes air-conditioned beaches seem sane.
I appreciate the comparison table. However, I will not blindly assume this surface does not disproportionately increase rolling resistance. We need to see some independent analysis (not just theory) on EROI before taking a chance on higher tailpipe emissions being an unintended consequence.