Use traffic to generate power?
if all cars had alternating magnets mounted to the floor of the car and a copper coil was installed in all motorways would the trafic generate power for the citys
if all cars had alternating magnets mounted to the floor of the car and a copper coil was installed in all motorways would the trafic generate power for the citys
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Answers & Comments
Theoretically yes, but the power needs to come from some place.
This would be the cars being slowed down as they went over the induction coils. So all the drivers would need to steep on the gas a little harder to maintain speed. It would be more efficient just to raise the tax rate and build a power station with the money.
Although it might be interesting to consider putting them before stop signs or on steep down-hills where the driver would want to slow down anyway. Then some of the energy of the moving car could be captured, rather than being used to heat up cars brakes. But this sort of system is used in hybrid cars already where the electric motor is used as a generator when the car is being slowed, and the energy stored in the battery to be used when the driver wants to speed up again.
So as more cars become electric and hybrid they system looses it's appeal, as the cars are already capturing that energy and reusing it.
That would be a very inefficient way of generating power.
The cars' engines would have to work harder to maintain speed, so increasing fuel consumption and emissions from the cars. Given that cars are already less efficient than power stations, and that transfer of power from the vehicles' kinetic energy to electricity would not be 100% efficient, the increase in emissions relative to a power station would be significant.
You cannot get something for nothing. If the generation scheme worked it would be at the expense of adding drag to the cars which would be overcome by burning fuel - no point. A more efficient system could be installed which just burned that fuel directly
I seem to remember an article in Popular Science magazine like 40 years ago that proposed this same thing... Apparently the science guys couldn't make it work then or we'd already have it in operation. I doubt the science has improved much since then.
Hi No the idea is actually for making cars move not generating power. so as it is not efficient. way to produce electricity but use the oil to produce power electric power for electric cars. we are on this road already.
no