Remember when bouncing on a bed generated electricity which powered your bedroom lightbulb? Oh. No wait, that was only a dream I had. Well InnoWATTech, an Israeli company, has invented a way to put a machine under highway asphalt, which, when compressed by trucks and cars overhead, can generate electricity to power overhead lights, join a regional grid, or be stored in batteries.
Lucy Edery-Azulay, CEO of the start-up, says that for every 500 vehicles passing over a one-kilometer stretch of road, at an average speed of 72 km/h, 200 kilowatts of power can be produced per hour, which is enough electricity to power between 200 and 300 consumer households in that period.
Trains, which weigh even more can generate even more power. “Our pads contain piezoelectric disks, which can transform mechanical stresses into electrical output (voltage),†said Haim Abramovich. Preliminary results suggest that areas of railway track that get between 10 and 20 ten-car trains an hour can produce 120 KWh of renewable energy per hour.
NYC SUBWAY…. HERE THEY COME!
Dr. Edery-Azulay hold a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Technion. The firm was co-founded by Technion Associate Professor Haim Abramovich, Hadassah’s Dr. Charles Milgrom, and Dr. Eugeny Harash who knows about asphalt from his years at the Moscow Institute of Steel & Alloys.
In other Israeli Innovation news, Knowledge@Wharton highlights recent Israeli innovations and investments, and the recent US Chamber of Commerce panel discussion on Israeli Innovations
How is stealing energy from cars (and decreasing their gas mileage) more efficient and moral than using normal power plants?
Lot of bizarre presumptions. “stealing energy”? or lower fuel efficiency? How do you come to these conclusions?