Your new post is loading...
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved a pilot program in which piezoelectric crystals will be installed on several freeways.
Piezoelectric-based energy‐harvesting technology is already being used in other countries. Since 2009, all the displays in the East Japan Railway Company's Tokyo station have been powered by people walking on the piezoelectric flooring. Italy has signed a contract that will install this technology in a portion of the Venice-to-Trieste Autostrada. Israel is already using this technology on some highways, which is how Gatto got the idea for the pilot program in California. A friend returning from a trip to Israel raved about a road that produced energy.
"If piezoelectric‐based technology has the potential to match the performance, reliability and costs of existing or emerging renewable energy sources, then it can potentially diversify California's resource portfolio and ultimately increase grid reliability and reduce costs to ratepayers," states a report prepared for the CEC in 2014 by international certification body and classification society DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability...
With all that traffic in California, this might turn out to be quite productive...