| Harness the Highways Wind |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Monday, 30 April 2007 | ||
 It's a sad day when a significant amount of a nation's weather is produced by using fossil fuels to push blocks of metal through the air. But, as long as that artificial weather is there, you might as well harness it. Wind speeds along highways are significantly higher than the national average of 10 mph so, it turns out, they are a great place to put wind turbines. As long as you can keep them close, but not too close, vertical axis wind turbines (like the ones in the graphic above) can generate a significant amount of power from the wind created by cars and trucks. A recent proposal published at Archinet from "Joe" at the university of Arizona, has Quiet Revolution wind turbines looming over traffic lanes doing just that. While we'll never recover much of the energy wasted pushing air out of the way of a Hummer, even a fraction could be a significant source of power. Effectively increasing the mileage of every car on the road just a tiny bit per turbine. Of course, the more logical thing to spend government subsidies on would be more aerodynamic vehicles and less interstate travel. But, as long as we're wasting all that energy anyway, we might as well recover a bit of it. Via Inhabitat
Comments
(4)
But as an afjunct to train travel...
written by Dave Riley , May 01, 2007
Of course IF these devices were situated along railway lines and in the underground rail network especially they'd harness the energy projected by passing trains -- sau y, to supply buildings above, although it would by a rather variable power source.
...
written by Varient , May 01, 2007
That looks dangerous. It is unsettling.
...
written by steph , May 02, 2007
Billboards look dangerous too. I mean they have electric stuff running through them. There's probably less danger to birds than conventional wind turbines. And I agree it would be good for trains.
The important thing would be to make them harder to knock over than street lamps. They'd have to use whatever they do for the huge signs. Or maybe they could hang them from bridges.
Drag
written by pault , May 03, 2007
Unfortunately the extra drag on the cars will increase
their fuel consumption - overall cost will be more than energy generated | ||
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