It’s clear why people don’t want to use pollution-free electricity generators: fossil fuels come at good prices. Yet there are many ways to generate decent amounts of energy without burning stuff. I’m sure you’ve heard of solar panels or Aeolian mechanisms and these are just starting to get some attention. But apart from solar, wind and Brownian devices, we should also be considering the kinetic forces.
Terry Kenney succeeded in building a device straight into the road, which would harvest the energy from the vehicles driving over it. Terry has been working on this project for about eight years, using components from all around the world. Just recently, he has managed to turn the “ Dragon Power Station” on for the first time. New American Media reports that as trucks pass over plates embedded in the asphalt “they compress a tank of hydraulic fluid under the road, which in turn creates a series of pumping actions that turns a generator to produce electricity.”
Kenney expects it to produce 5,000 to 7,000 kilowatt-hours every day, which is enough to power 1,750 homes. The “Dragon” is already set to be installed in some other prime locations and Kenney foresees a profitable deal out of these devices. (Story from coolgadgetconcept)
Pretty cool. I wonder how many other viable ways there are to capture wasted energy.
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