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Design Idea Turns Highways Into Wind Farms |
20 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Green Living, Wind Power | September 4, 2007 | ||
“The design is a retrofitting replacement of the horizontal steel tube that currently holds freeway signage. The replacement will house two horizontal axis wind turbines (Quiet Revolution designs) that will be powered by the turbulence created from the passing cars. Average vehicle speeds on the valley highways are approximately 70 mph. Using average annual wind speeds of 10 mph as a baseline, each single wind turbine will produce 9,600KwH of energy, annually (enough to fully power my 700 s.f. apartment). This power production estimate will increase exponentially with an increase in wind turbulence speed. I believe that the wind stream created over the freeways by our primary mode of transportation will create an average annual wind speed well beyond the baseline of 10 mph.”
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Nick said,
Cool idea, but, green aspects apart, what kind of ROI are you going to get? Nobody will buy into something that will take hundreds of years to prove economically viable no matter how green.
Eden said,
Nice idea! But how much money would it take to build it? Barely anyone will invest into normal wind turbines (due to loudness, $$$, Look). And those are usually in fields away from humans. This one in right above your head and if you were suck in traffic…well that wouldn’t be to pleasant.
Roland said,
It could work but I think the idea is a bit too out there to be considered for actual production. I too have been researching methods to use energy-hungry cars to give back power. Hell, if you can’t change the paradigm use it to get something back. That’s my philosophy.
matt said,
so, where do the freeway signs go then?
Brett S McCluskey said,
I thought the speed limit was 65 and we are at no time to go above 65 as to not violate the law.
Erin said,
I think that this is a pretty cool idea. I mean we use these freeways everyday shouldn’t something useful come out of it, instead of just pollution? It may be true that this will never be a viable idea for the future, but isn’t the point of going green thinking outside the box? Not just thinking for profit…
Allison said,
Highways are funded with federal money in the US. They would probably just make you pay a toll. The government gets behind lots of things that aren’t “economically viable”.
Cibi said,
Hi,
It is really a great idea, the way we can harness energy from vehicle turbulence. But I have one doubt as per your design the placement of the turbines are in line at a fixed height of 4.5 meter or above. Do you think ordinary cars which is less than 2 meter heigh can generate enough turbulence for getting the turbines work effectively at that height. For trucks and bigger vehicles it won’t be a problem, but majority of them are small cars, and more over now a days vehicle manufactures are making their vehicles more and more streamlined to create less turbulence.
Regards,
Cibi
kat said,
For ROI, i think that they can place ads using light weight materials and stick it to the “propeller”. This will create more wind, since it will act as a sort of a sail. I just don’t know how safe this would be. What are your thoughts?
Hun Boon said,
Hey wasn’t this discussed some time back?
I can’t remember whether it was on this blog or some other green blogs, but it’s certainly not fresh news..
Amb1en7 said,
Drive faster and save the city money? No more speeding tickets!! Conflict of interest w00t!
Erabulus said,
At 9600KwH per turbine, and a 10¢/kWh cost for electricity, that means each turbine would only gross $960 a year. There is no way that will be economical. It would take a decades to recoup the construction costs alone… or are you telling me the retrofit & grid tie-in can be done for less than $10k including materials and labor?
Harun said,
Listening to some of the comments, I come away pondering the route of everybody’s cynicism. When did the human need for improvement and progression become smeared and congested with greed and capitalism.
I think it is a fantastic idea and would be greatly welcomed if only our species could see that we and our lovely cars and pollutant inducing activities are not the number one priority in this delicate balance that is the vast universe.
Wake up to the changes or be wiped out, Darwin was correct when he coined the phrase ‘Natural selection’, think about it people………
amanda said,
DAMMIT!!!! i have had this idea (different design) for 5 years now!!!! oh well… guess i’ll never make my millions
Ron Stimmel said,
The spirit of the idea is great, but what you have here is a gasoline-powered wind turbine. The cars run on gasoline, which makes them move, which makes the air around them move (wind). But the cars must push the wind into the turbine, and for the turbine to spin the cars must push harder. And to do that, the cars use more gas.
If you were to drive down this freeway, you would find that you had to accelerate as you approached this overhead turbine.
It’s the same idea as mounting a mini wind turbine on the roof of your car to “power” your car. What you get is a gasoline powered, and less efficient, generator.
It’s great to have this kind of enthusiasm, though.
D said,
How about giving credit to Popular Science for the Picture and article.
Michael d'Estries said,
Because Popular Science neither wrote the article nor came up with the photo. Check the credit given due above. Plus, this story was written before Popular Science even made mention of the technology.
Check your dates, son: http://www.popsci.com/environment/gallery/2008-02/alternative-wind-turbines
Kelley said,
Sorry I know this may sound very simplistic but what if the wind were blowing the opposite direction of the “wind” made by the cars going by. I think its a good idea but the wind doesn’t blow the same direction everyday.
Jimbo said,
Um… Just a simple law of thermodynamics. Notice I say “law” not “theory” or “hypothesis.” For every action there is a reaction. Okay, so if you are extracting energy from the wind being moved by the cars, that means that the cars would have to exert more energy in order to maintain their speed which means more gas being consumed, which means more pollution. Not only is that a problem, but the loss that exists in any wind generation device would also have to be considered. You would burn 5 maybe even 100 times the amount of fuel in the vehicles that you would have to put in a normal generator to create the same amount of power.
It would make more sense to make the cars create less turbulence, people don’t have to buy more fuel, so raise the tax on fuel at the pump, then burn the tax dollars the you just stole from all your citizens by lining your buddies pockets while pretending to “redistribute” the wealth like some robbinhood. Sure, you’ll have to do some PR, like limit your staff’s slaries, but don’t fear, you don’t have to tighten your own belt, you can hide behind some law, but just be sure not to mention that you could initiate a change in that law. I mean, that’s how grampa did it, that’s how Obama does it, and that’s probably going to be the way it’s done in the future.
solarpanelsforsale said,
This is genius. Just think how much could be done, by implementing this all over the roads. Adding them to traffic lights, stop signs, etc.