Roads to Offset CO2 Emissions

An Israeli company has developed an innovative method to offset Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by vehicles – creating roads that actually draw on and utilise the energy of these vehicles to power electrical appliances, or to supply current to the national grid.

The firm in question – Innowattech – has come up with a system which is positioned beneath the topmost layer of asphalt in a road. The system is based around piezoelectric technology, which – according to the company’s website, “harvests energy that ordinarily goes to wasteand can be installed without changing the habitat.”

Electrical Energy from Vehicle Pressure

Here’s how it works. Vehicles driving along a road apply pressure to it (i.e. their weight), along with vibration linked to movement. The application of these forces onto the piezoelectric materials makes them change shape – a physical deformation that creates a voltage. This voltage is used to create electrical energy, and this energy can subsequently illuminate streetlights, billboards or safety signs, or contribute to wider, national electricity supply. Therefore the system will create electrical energy from vehicle pressure.

One day, according to the company, the technology could also be used to charge electric cars in real time.

In terms of output, Innowattech claims that around 400 Kilowatt-hours can be generated from a one kilometre-long road surface incorporating their technology (on the basis of 600 vehicles using it every sixty minutes). This level of power alone, it says, would be sufficient for the electricity needs of up to 800 houses.

Innowattech’s Business Development & Marketing Executive, Yael Greenberg, highlighted how the system could not only be used on roads, but “...anywhere that there’s high vehicular, train or pedestrian traffic”. So, airports, railway stations and even nightclubs are all viable.

Andrew Davis, the director of the ETA (Environment Transport Association), highlighted the benefits of this kind of technology, stating: “If these electric roads can be put in place without harm to the environment, they would be a silver lining to the problem of heavy traffic.”

Piezoelectric Technology

The history of piezoelectricity technology dates back over 100 years, to when Jacques and Pierre Curie described how certain materials could produce a current when misshapen.

A number of road energy schemes comparable to Innowattech’s are being contemplated in the UK. One of these involves so-called ‘electro kinetic road ramps’ – speed bumps, basically, that would generate power in response to vehicles moving over them.