This article’s source is the Greener Gadget’s competition website. All images and references are from the preceding link.
As part of the Greener Gadgets competition taking place in New York this February, TAK studio USA has submitted a concept of street lights powered by the displaced air created by fast moving vehicles. Just as turbulence that occurs in a pipe, turbulence generated by a moving vehicle accounts for losses in the system. This is why TAK studio’s concept has so much potential for energy purposes, all of the work that our cars are doing to push themselves through the air can be used through the powering of turbines that are mounted on street lights. Of course, this concept does pose potential limitations; areas with minimal traffic flow or low Levels of Service would see less turbulence generated by vehicles. Additionally, freeways are most often emptiest in the middle of the night when the energy needed the most so these systems would need to be able to store significant amounts of energy. One can, however; immediately see how this solution would be monumentally cheaper than the installation of solar panels on every street light.
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