Subsidizing Public Transportation with Speeding Cars
Harvesting wind energy from cars? Mark Oberholzer comes up with the innovative idea of harvesting energy from the wind of passing cars.
"How many speeding cars does it take to power a lightbulb? For Mark Oberholzer, a runner-up in the 2006 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition, this might not be such an absurd question. His project proposed integrating turbines into the barriers between highway lanes that would harness the wind generated by passing cars to create energy. 'Opposing streams of traffic create really incredible potential in terms of a guaranteed wind source,' Oberholzer says."
"Oberholzer believes Jersey barriers are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the wind that passing cars generate. By replacing sections of solid concrete with Darius turbines he thinks they could harvest enough energy to power a light-rail line."
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- In the Bright Sun of the Desert, a Difficult Compromise is Exposed - Feb 07, 2012
- Fracking Leads to Natural Gas Price Drops - Jan 26, 2012
- Parsing the State of the Union Address for Planners - Jan 25, 2012
- Detroit Auto Show Highlights New EVs - But Where Are The Buyers? - Jan 17, 2012
- Your Prius Won't Save You - Jan 14, 2012
Planetizen picks
Contribute
- Top Cities For Singles Revealed
- Are the Arts Losing Out in D.C. Redevelopment?
- Detroit For Sale?
- Chinese Cities in Desperate Need of Competent Planning
- The Rise of Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing
- What the Feds are Doing to Connect Housing Policy to Health Policy
- Why the Politics of Climate Change Matter
- Waste Disposal Becomes Sexy
- Murky Future for Two of D.C.'s Architectural Gems
- The Story Behind One of the Most Controversial Buildings in the Country
My Storm, Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina is Required Reading for Planners
U Penn Press
Feb 13, 2012
Planetizen Announces New Managing Editor: Jonathan Nettler, AICP
Planetizen
Feb 13, 2012
Volunteerism Plays Critical Role in Reaching World’s Millennium Development Goals
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Feb 10, 2012
www.flickr.com
|
Fatal Flaw with this Idea
I’ve seen a number of stories about harnessing wind energy from traffic, but there’s one fatal flaw. Capturing the wind increases the wind resistance on the cars. The result is that the contributing drivers are paying for all of the wind energy with increased gasoline usage. To make matters worse, since the turbine efficiency is less than 100%, the turbines consume more energy from gasoline than they create.
I am a huge proponent of windpower, but on first principles, this idea just can’t work.