Vibration-Power Generators Turn Road Traffic into Electricity?
The vibrations of every passing vehicle are now being turned into electricity by a venture company whose technology is powering one of 108 LED (light-emitting diode) lights on the Goshiki Zakura Ohashi bridge over the Arakawa River in Tokyo's downtown Adachi Ward -- and whose pioneering work may one day lead to aircraft that fly across oceans and continents without using fossil fuels.
For the time being, though, that LED light shines because it is connected to 10 generators set beneath the roadbed of the Metropolitan Expressway crossing the bridge, where vehicles' vibrations make the pendulums in the generators swing and so generate electricity.
After many failed trials with various materials, Kouhei Hayamizu, who invented the vibration-power generators, found that substances called piezoelectric elements - made of barium titanium oxides - generate electricity when pressure is applied to them.
full article here
For the time being, though, that LED light shines because it is connected to 10 generators set beneath the roadbed of the Metropolitan Expressway crossing the bridge, where vehicles' vibrations make the pendulums in the generators swing and so generate electricity.
After many failed trials with various materials, Kouhei Hayamizu, who invented the vibration-power generators, found that substances called piezoelectric elements - made of barium titanium oxides - generate electricity when pressure is applied to them.
full article here
Labels: electricity, inventions
PermaLink - Vibration-Power Generators Turn Road Traffic into Electricity?
