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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."

12 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. Re:Great idea! by MemoryAid · · Score: 5, Interesting
      It looks like a speed bump, so presumably it is to be placed somewhere cars are encouraged to slow down. It would make sense to convert some of that energy into electricity instead of heat.

      The article said that "Depending on the weight of the vehicle passing overhead, between five and 50kW can be generated." I wonder if that is only while the car is passing, or an average figure for some reasonable level of traffic. I imagine the duty cycle of a speed bump is low.

      --
      Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
  2. It gets worse by tkdog · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's not even the bad part. Those damn government bastards have installed "friction" all over the place and it is WARMING THE PLANET. It's a plot I tell you, a plot.

  3. 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?

    1. Re:Cost vs. benefit... by blibbler · · Score: 5, Informative

      If it was designed well, the maintenance should be negligible. There might also be a benefit in that the lights would stay on in a power outage.
      As far as electricity usage goes, I would guess that each bulb might be 200 Watts. Depending on the design of an intersection, there would probably be between 8 and 16 of these lights on constantly. According to http://www.ukpower.co.uk/running-costs-elec.asp the cost per month would be about £130/month, or a bit more than £1500/year. Assuming there is no interest (or increase in the price of electricity) it would take almost 16 years before these savings make up for the cost of the equipment. Many governments make investments on this time-scale anyway. Additionally, if it could be used to power more than one traffic light, it might only take 7 or 8 years to pay for itself.

  4. 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.

    1. Re:how about if they only pop up by ryanvm · · Score: 5, Funny

      But those of us with hybrid cars are already reclaiming that energy...

      Hmmm. Maybe they could design a ramp that's powered by your own sense of self satifaction...

  5. Next, the toll to enter the turnpike... by craXORjack · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'll have to drive your car on a giant hamster wheel attached to a generator for two minutes.

    --
    Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
  6. Re:Yes and no by one9nine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Naturally this is leaving aside the question of whether speed humps are worthwhile or not.

    Depends on how drunk you are and how ugly she is.

  7. Lots of Negativity Around This Story... by RoffleTheWaffle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... And for what?

    Okay, okay. I get the idea, this is essentially a means by which electricty can be derived from the same energy that drives your vehicle. However... isn't this energy that would just be wasted, anyway? This thing doesn't exactly slow down your car. It's not like it's sucking power right out of your engine. This is kinetic energy combined with the force of gravity and the weight of your car, energies that would just be wasted and poured into the ground otherwise. Ten kilowatts, depending on your perspective, may or may not in fact be 'drops in the barrel' energy wise, but it's more than enough to power devices like stop lights and road signs, granted it's stored efficiently and the devices attached to it are similarly efficient.

    On a well traveled road, energy that is essentially being wasted can be recaptured and used to power lights and signs for several intersections without placing any load on the local power grid. Sure, these things are pricey, but as their price decreases with time and their efficiency and output both climb, doesn't it make sense that these things just might pay for themselves? That reduces the cost of maintaining roads in the long run by cutting out virtually all energy expenses in areas that are frequently traveled - and if the system becomes efficient enough, it could cut out the energy costs for an entire community's roadways and intersections.

    This isn't 'another gas tax'. This is one less reason to have gas taxes. On a highway like ol' I-69 here in Indy, a couple handfuls of these ramps could power every lighted roadside sign and traffic signal within the city of Indianapolis, with energy to spare. Higher traffic translates directly into greater energy gains. If these things are durable enough to take the punishment, they'd pay for themselves within a matter of weeks. Now let's think about even more heavily traveled roadways, like those in New York City or LA. 10 kilowatts per panel times a few thousand automobiles a day, that's megawatts and megawatts of power being generated every day. The excess could be put into the city electrical grid, however small an amount it may be by then, and used to power other things. Street lights, low-demand municipal facilities, etc... All of this from WASTE. This is an excellent idea, and I hope to see technology like this move forward.

    And before anyone replies to this, no, this is not 'just another way for the government to control our cars'. I won't be concerned about that until they start installing spike strips in these things. (And with or without ramps, that could be done at every intersection anyway....) This is hardly ripping off the taxpayer, either, if a comparatively small expense saves a ton more money. Sure, right now that expense isn't small, but it'll get smaller if enough communities buy into this stuff - perhaps even going from a few thousand dollars to just a few hundred. Money in the bank, and back in our pockets, folks... No problems here.

  8. 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...