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Ramp Creates Power As Cars Pass

Posted by Zonk on from the rolling-rolling-rolling dept.

Ant wrote to mention a BBC News report on a ramp that generates power via passing cars. From the article: "Dorset inventor Peter Hughes' Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp creates around 10kW of power each time a car drives over its metal plates. More than 200 local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the £25,000 ramps to power their traffic lights and road signs, Mr Hughes said."

5 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Great idea! by confusion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Takes generating electricity to a new level of inefficiency...

    I suppose it might work on a ramp going down, but level or up, and the "free" energy is coming from the gas tanks of the drivers.

    Jerry
    http://www.cyvin.org/

    1. Re:Great idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If used on straight road, silly. But if on an off ramp where the car has to slow down anyway, then it is a form of regnerative braking for the car.

      But it won't be good for the efficiency of hybrid cars.

  2. Cost vs. benefit... by johndierks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how long it takes to pay off a 25,000 pound piece of equipment plus installation and maintenance with savings in electricity for street and traffic lights? I'm guessing a really long time.
    Is it even worth it?

  3. how about if they only pop up by quakemeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

    when there is a red light ahead. so instead of wasting peoples gas, these things would save consumers brake pads?

    so you could have a field of them that pop up some distance before each light to absorb all the wasted energy that goes into brake heat.

  4. Kilowatts mean nothing, it's Kwh we need to know.. by Quebec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They talk about kilowatts, but for how long?... 1 second? 1/2 second? 1/100?

    if it's 1/40th of a second as I would estimate each passing car would generate 0.069444 KWh and it would take about 50 cars to produce the equivalent of a fully charged AA rechargeable (if we take a 2500mAh battery). But I guess their marketing department wouldn't want us to learn those number first...