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California man generates electricity from passing trucks

 
13 2,482 views Apr 30, 2008

California man generates electricity from passing trucks

California man generates electricity from passing trucks

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A man in California has devised an innovative method of generating ‘green’ power from passing trucks that drive up and down busy highways the world over. Inventor Terry Kenney came up with the idea of using the kinetic energy of a truck barreling down a highway to compress a tank of hydraulic fluid located in plates on the road surface. This would create a pumping action that could turn a generator and produce electricity.

Kenney has already set up a scale version of the system at the Port of Oakland and plans to start full testing by June, Reuters reports. He predicts the system will be able to generate 5,000 to 7,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each day from local traffic (about 2,500 passing trucks), which would be enough to power close to 1,750 homes.

The set-up consists of a number of wide and sturdy plates that contain the hydraulic fluid and are connected to a generator by the side of the road. The plates are designed to be able to withstand trucks weighing up to 180,000lbs and there are even plans for smaller units to capture energy from passenger cars.

The system will initially be used to help power Oakland terminal operator SSA, although it will only cover about 5% of the firm’s energy needs. Kenney is now seeking funding to help commercialize the project.



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Comments (13)

  1. By Raptor Posted: 4/30/2008 8:48am PDT

    Great. And trucks will use more gas to do the same distance. Real smooth.

    Not to mention that that kind of electricitiy is useless.
     
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  2. By Gus Posted: 4/30/2008 10:33am PDT

    That seems awfully complex, no?
     
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  3. By Stephen Posted: 4/30/2008 11:11am PDT

    If they can perfect it trucks might be able to light the stretches of highway at night that they drive on.
     
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  4. By Voice of Reason Posted: 4/30/2008 12:21pm PDT

    Raptor. And exactly what are you doing to help contribute outside of spewing your negative response? Don't be an @sshole.

    More power to the inventors trying to do something good for society..
     
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  5. By Raptor Posted: 4/30/2008 12:28pm PDT

    Dude no hard feelings but this ''invention'' is bullshit. You can't create energy out of nothing. If you use kinetic energy of a truck this means truck will use more fuel to get from A to B.

    Yes?
     
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  6. By vb Posted: 4/30/2008 1:34pm PDT

    I have to say Raptor has a point there, that immediately popped into my mind as well. It's simple physics, the energy consumed by the plates has to come from somewhere and it's most likely going back to the truck-fuel. The only possibility how this system would make sense is that the plates would generate energy from resonance mainly caused by the energy of gravitation.
     
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  7. By Gus Posted: 4/30/2008 2:47pm PDT

    So my other question is, in order for the plates to move, does that cause a bumpy ride?
     
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  8. By Voice of Reason Posted: 4/30/2008 4:48pm PDT

    Well, without knowing all the details of how it works, I wouldn't just dismiss it entirely. Semi trucks are heavy and with the momentum they carry going over these plates, it may not exact a measurable fuel penalty, at least not costly enough to offset the benefit of the electricity it generates. Every little bit helps. It may be no different than driving over those metal expansion plates. I would like to see more details on how it works before calling it useless.
     
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  9. By james Posted: 4/30/2008 5:28pm PDT

    look, it wouldn't be news unless there was something to it, unless this site is just trying to take up space which i doubt. don't discount theories without first looking into them
     
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  10. By Gus Posted: 4/30/2008 5:37pm PDT

    True, if it can produce decent electricity without incredible complexity and maintenance, and without causing a bumpy ride or added rolling resistance, then it is pure genius.

    Otherwise, not so much...
     
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  11. By chris Posted: 5/1/2008 12:14pm PDT

    Reason; its true. regardless of what you think of electricity, it isnt magic. if hydraulic pressure is being caused by the gravitational force or sapping momentum, then its actually going to be less efficient than other sources.

    I've already said it before, and I'll say it again. The dirtiest sources of electric power in the western grid is still 40% cleaner than the cleanest burning transport engines. the engine is the only way of getting energy out of a truck, and if you you're taking energy out of that truck, then its going to use more fuel. it will combust it in a dirtier process than is available at the dirtiest coal plants in all of the western world. and then you have the fact that you're transmitting energy through a medium to a generator which is another medium. any time you transfer energy, you lose some in the form of parasitic loses. you've got a cheap ICE thats operating at 30% efficiency at best, and a momentum recovery device which should be fairly efficient because compressed fluids behave as solids, so you can assume the recovery would run at around 90% (if you compress fluids, they heat. this is your loss), and the electrical pump and generator package would be 90% efficient at best.

    this company would actually be better off buying a crate engine from Mack or Volvo and run a constant generator. But that isn't the point. the point is that everyone likes green tech, whether it is green or not. this company will get a lot of press and a lot of business from this whole thing.
     
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  12. By JVC Posted: 5/3/2008 11:36pm PDT

    I would not be so negative to dismiss this idea without even looking at the details. If it got as far as being in its testing phase then it most likely has merit.

    I disagree with the increased fuel consumption. Fuel consumption is affected by horizontal forces such as drag and friction which are products of vehicle weight, tire pressure, frontal area, speed and aerodynamic efficiency. If this new invention takes advantage of a trucks' weight to create hydraulic pressure then I don't see how that can affect any of the factors stated above. If these plates are solid with similar friction coefficient to asphalt or concrete then that means this system is purely using the vertical dynamic forces created by the weight of the trucks. No additional resistance is created through friction.

    A comparison could be made to a downward hydraulic escalator that uses the continuous traffic of human weight loads to maintain a circulating system. No energy is exerted by people whatsoever. The system simply takes advantage of the weight of the person. The argument above, by some, states that -comparatively speaking- people would have to exhert energy to go down a hydraulic escalator driven by a person's weight. Completely senseless.

    As long as the truck does not have to use additional energy to regain the vertical displacement from which it started (similar to a human having to walk up the stairs to get back to where he started) then there should not be any additional fuel consumption.

    Any gain from this device, even if not efficient is an absolute gain, so the argument of parasitic loses and efficiency is irrelevant. If you step on the top of a step cyle at the gym it will slowly slide down due to your weight, there is no energy incurred by you and the energy created by your weight driving down the driv belts could be used to power fans. Even if the fans are not efficient, the energy is 100% "free".
     
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  13. By soban Posted: 5/15/2011 5:47am PDT

    i m student of electrical engineering & wanna work on this project as my final 1....can sm 1 plz guide me further how this works coz information given here is too less & didn't gives overview of this project..........
     
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