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Sep 3, 2009 09:00 PM | 65
The Burger King on U.S. Highway 22 in Hillside, N.J., looks no different from any other franchise in the state. Customers pull in and out all day, and at least 100,000 cars visit the drive-thru each year. And now a newly installed, mechanized speed bump (video) will both help them slow down and harvest some of that coasting energy.
"We use the weight of a car to throw a lever," explains Gerard Lynch, the engineer behind the MotionPower system developed for New Energy Technologies, a Maryland-based company. "The instantaneous power is 2,000 watts at five miles-per-hour, but it's instantaneous [which means some form of storage will be required.] The real key is how do I get a million cars to do that for me."
This demonstration project won't actually provide electricity to either the Burger King or the grid, but it will employ a mini-flywheel—a mechanical device that stores energy by spinning—to test storage potential. A higher price can be charged for electricity that is fed into the grid at the right moment. "How do we capture and hold these pulses efficiently so we can dispatch them at the right time when the electricity rate is most advantageous," Lynch says. "Here in Hillside, the average price when you take delivery is 17.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. It's double that in peak summer. The idea is: let's hit it all day and return [that power] at 3 PM in the afternoon."
In the future, New Energy may employ flywheels, super-capacitors or some other form of storage, but this demonstration is intended just to prove that the speed bump won't fold under continuous pressure from the 1,000 pounds per wheel of weight from an average car—and that people accept it. "Do people say, 'Get it out of my way,' or 'This is pretty cool'?" Lynch says.
Assuming that the latter is the case, the company hopes to develop the next generation of the technology, which could be employed anywhere from the local fast food joint to rumble strips at toll plazas. After all, there are some 251 million registered vehicles on U.S. roadways, so harvesting some of the energy otherwise lost in coming to a stop might make sense for use in powering streetlights or even the grid. "Our new device will look completely different, more like a traditional speed bump," says Meetesh Patel, New Energy's CEO. "The first guy that went over it didn't even realize that he had created electricity in his drive to get a burger."
Image: Courtesy of New Energy Technologies
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65 Comments
Add CommentI saw something similar on television a while back but I think it didn't required that one be coming to a halt. The pic here looks kinda like the one I saw but the video looks like something different mechanically. Looks interesting to say the least.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs has been pointed out on other forums, this "invention" is idiotic. While it claims to harvest free energy, it is in fact stealing energy from every driver who passes over it. If you believe in free energy, I have a perpetual motion machine to sell you. Every car drops a little bit in passing over this and then uses a little more gas to get out of that depression, that's where your "free" energy comes from. This is not placed near the bottom of a hill where cars are already braking and trying to lose excess energy, to the contrary, it appears to be heading UPHILL to the checkout window. So each car will use a little more gas getting there, and pollute a little more in the process just to "move that lever." I WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM BURGER KING if they are foolish enough to install these in their drive-thrus.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is worrisome that SciAm editors report this as if it were "science" and are uncritical of this energy scam.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDitto on MarthaStewart's comment. The energy that is being harvested is not energy that was going to be lost anyway, it is just stealing energy from your car and using more gasoline. The maker should have to explain how they are not stealing energy from your car with this device. Especially if these are installed on public roads!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn addition, the entire motivation of the maker seems to just make as much money as possible by stealing energy from you and selling it to energy companies at peak rates. This "alternative energy" company is not concerned at all about the environment, or they will also explain the environmental impact of these devices when they cause cars to use a little more gas each time they are driven over.
You have to remember these are the SciAm Blogs, which they apparently allow any random person to post to without checking any facts. The actual articles are a little better, but you also have to fact check them yourself sometimes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMartha, martha, martha...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think you both misunderstand the purpose and the implementation of this. Such a device is only used in places where the car is ALREADY in the process of slowing down (ie pulling up to a drive-through or stopping at a toll booth). Thus there is no "using more gas" involved, no needing to get out of a depression and in fact you would use slightly LESS breaks to come to a stop than you previously would have used because part of your current speed is reduced by going over this speed bump.
You may want to pay a bit more attention before making comments about what is "idiotic" ;-)
Step away from the slide rules, gentlemen. This is a demonstration project. Perhaps a future version will be placed on a hill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd what about my Prius? If I must slow down, I want that energy to go into MY battery. I payed for the gas in the tank, it is MY energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that this is stealing energy.
We do not live in Utopia. Unless a business has a cost effective reason to become more green, it won't. We have two paths - force businesses to change or provide incentives. Since they have far more power in government than us, I suggest you recognize that it is a good thing if a company can find a way to capture money from something like this. Government legislation is a long process and since its a global problem, its going to be even longer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA good business will incorporate green solutions if they can make or save money on the idea. They will not if it is just a cost burden.
Anne is correct. If you are in the process of stopping anyway, the energy will only have to be "replaced" by your wallet if you own a hybrid. However, others are correct that this invention is idiotic. It has no future since the energy produced will be incredibly expensive. Better to convert the fleet to hybrids rather than to attempt to harvest little bits of this energy here and there on the road.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course, it seems the government's role these days is to support ideas that are uneconomical, so expect to see these show up somewhere on the taxpayer's dime.
Just a quick note for Prius owners: the reason I use the word coasting is that this kinetic energy will not be subtracted from your regenerative braking. It is the weight of the car that is driving the electricity production, not the slowing of the car. Also, today, all of that braking energy in the vast majority of cars is simply dissipated as heat to the ambient environment, of no use to anyone. The problem here, as I see it, is the storage piece, not the energy harvesting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you are so worried about wasting gas, why are you sitting in the drive thru?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswill you also boycott every business with a regular speed bump in the parking lot?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswill you also boycott every business with a regular speed bump in the parking lot?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWait a minute dbiello. For the car to impart energy to the Rube Goldberg contraption under the pavement, it has to give up energy in some way. This could result in the car slowing, thereby giving up kinetic energy, or by the car ending up at a lower elevation, thereby giving up gravitational potential energy. The only way weight is translated to energy is by loss of elevation or loss of velocity. Either way, this energy could have been captured by the car's regenerative braking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the car must climb a bump from the device, the device is clearly stealing power from the car but if the approaching roadway is already higher than the exit from the device, the device can capture weight energy without penalty to the car. If a speed bump is required for safety, it inherently steals energy for the purpose of safety anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we used these in neighborhoods where speed bumps currently exist, the energy that would have been wasted anyways could be harvested and used for public utilities like streetlights. These could be used on downhill streets, or even highways if they were arranged so they would not overly disrupt the attitude of the auto passing over it. If you drive on the 405 in Ca, you know how bumpy a freeway can be. These could be placed in freeways to power the emergency phones and cameras and no one would be the wiser.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUse some imagination and try to see where it WOULD be feasible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI feel as though there could be many uses for this. You need to brake anyway, why not use this in conjunction with your vehicle brakes as a way to slow the vehicle. You would also be using less brake pad. Why not utilize all the types of generation that we can, to help with the overall supply. I know old habits are hard to break, but drill baby drill, is not the best way!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is categorical nonsense, but it isn't NECESSARILY the scam that a few of my fellow readers interpret it to be. If there was going to be a regular speed bump there in the first place, this does no harm because a standard speed bump takes away the same energy from the car in the first place which is dissipated in the form of heat. HOWEVER I did a couple calculations and, assuming the speed-bump is a board positioned at 45 degrees at a maximum height of a foot, and an average car weighs 3000 and travels a 5mph, I can't see them saving any more than $50 a year off of it (based on the figures given in the article). The people who are getting scammed the worst in this situation seems to be Burger King. Feel free to check my calculations, I refused to cary out any vector calculus for the sake of BK but I think I'm in the ballpark.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Enigmatical,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are correct. If the vehicle is in the process of stopping and is attempting to shed energy (momentum), the resistance provided by the "bump" will aid in doing just exactly that.
May need lots more work to be production line ready, but it's an intriguing idea.
There is a HUGE amount of energy being expended by vehicles that are slowing and stopping. If we could capture even a small portion of that energy it would definitely be a net gain for us.
Sez Me, that is called 'regenerative braking' and it is already being done in hybrids like the Prius or Insight or full electric vehicles like the Tesla Roadster.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnne, not to be at all argumentative, but with Prius, Insight or Tesla's.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHOW MANY of them are there? There are over 200 MILLION regular braking cars *on the road* today.
Regenerative breaking is a ways off--even in a good economy.
But, the BK Bump sounds a little "out there" to me.
Quinn, then my argument against that is that the amount of hybrids is rising steadily and installing these speed bumps will not be done overnight. Do you have any idea of the cost of upgrading every intersection and corner with these intelligent speed bumps? How about downhills? Can you capture that energy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd then it is at best a partial solution, because it only works where you lay down these speed bumps. In a hybrid car, the regenerative braking works EVERYWHERE at any speed. It is also tailored for the car, so a big, heavy car has more powerful regenerative braking capacity. These speed bumps will have to come in a 'one size fits all' variety.
But the main issue is e = m.v^2. These speed bumps are supposed to be working at low speeds. Most of the kinetic energy has been dissipated already in the deceleration from cruising speed to, say 40 km/h.
Deceleration from 80 km/h to 40 km/h yields three times more energy than going from 40 km/h to 0. The regenerative braking system of a hybrid or EV can capture all of that energy, the speed bump only a small part.
Sorry, formula should be: E = ½m.v²
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese will only be installed in places that were going to have speed bumps/rumble strips anyways. So the choice is yours, install a device that will steal your energy and do nothing with it (i.e. conventional speed bump) or a device that will steal your energy and perhaps do something usefull with it (i.e. this new speed bump).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo matter what your thoughts on it are, the speed bumps will be installed, so if you really dont want energy to be wasted the answer should be clear.
ABCdeMC: You are confused about how a speed bump works. Going over a speed bump will decrease your speed by a negligible amount. To save you discomfort and a broken suspension, you apply the brakes before hitting the speed bump.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is your brakes that do most of the deceleration, not the speed bump.
you apply the brakes before crossing a speed bump but physics dictate that as you cross over the speed bump it bleeds off energy. Theres no way around that. Your complaint is that this new speed bump will bleed off energy. The question you have to ask is do want this energy, that will be bled off regardless, to be reused.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor you to have a basis in your argument, you would have to prove that going through these new speed bumps bleed off more energy then the old speed bumps do. These speed bumps create a small "depression" that you have to accelerate out of, well old speed bumps are a small "impression" that you have to accelerate over. (and if you argue that you can just coast at a particular speed and go over the old type of speed bumps I will simply argue that you can just coast over the new speed bumps at a low enough speed.)
As long as this doesn't increase the price of my burger, I'm fine with it. And besides, it's only a TEST product; sometimes the best ideas come from places typically overlooked, and when you least expect them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe design seems rather flawed. What if you need to reverse? Wouldn't that just break the little panels by bending them backward?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell if it were at he point of where a stop was needed and did not impair forward momentum when pulling away it would be free energy. if you are coasting up to window and you used speed bump to slow down and then stopped rest of the way after and did not have to use gas to get over it then it is harnessing energy that people already wasted with to much propulsion in the first place
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell if it were at he point of where a stop was needed and did not impair forward momentum when pulling away it would be free energy. if you are coasting up to window and you used speed bump to slow down and then stopped rest of the way after and did not have to use gas to get over it then it is harnessing energy that people already wasted with to much propulsion in the first place
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis device will be installed where speed bumps are already in use, so it will not cause more gasoline to be used.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's replacing one barrier with another that can actually use the kinetic energy in a positive way.
Martha, Any average speed bump "steals" energy anyway. Anywhere there are speed bumps there might as well be speed bumps that can conserve at least some energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is an experiment. It has potential. The authors make very clear that storage and redistribution of the energy is quite a challenge. As for "stealing" energy from us, using gasoline to go buy hamburgers has to be a symbol of the American unsustainable lifestyle if there ever was one. Since the needlessly heavy SUV will produce that much more of a spark of energy, think of it as a sin tax... and if Enigmatical is correct, it isn't even a tax.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just want to say that this is not a new or original invention in my mind. I came up with the same type of energy generator in high school over 5 years ago. I even have notebook drawings to prove it and a few months ago I emailed a company about implementing this sort of generator. It is sad to see credit given to the people who have the resources to bring their ideas to fruition. I'm sure if i had the resources we would have already generated thousands of units of energy, but still i sit and watch as my ideas come to pass.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also have an email from January 20, this year concerning this type of invention and containing ideas in the same respect. Thus proving my own inventiveness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNothing idiotic about this. In fact shipping traffic in canals could harvest their own energy back to the rivers where high altitude water gets lost in the panama locks and speeding shippers could even qualify for a toll discount. The vulnerability of flywheels in moving objects and the size of capacitors on land provide a workable storage for smoothly transferring own energy back to moving vehicles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell - as the author said - "TANSTAAFL" - "There ain't no such thing as a Free Lunch." If you believe you are being robbed of energy (that you'd be wasting, anyway, at your brakes), then, obviously, you should not be driving a car, as it wastes energy every time you have to slow. If this energy is transferred to the merchant with whom you insist on doing drive-through business (a wasteful thing, in itself), then, presumably, this will help keep HIS costs down, allowing you to waste more energy yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's not stealing energy if there would be a speed bump there anyways... there are currently speed bumps all over the place to make people slow down, and they do make drivers use extra energy. Is it such a bad thing to harvest that energy? I don't believe the author claimed that energy was being produced from thin air.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think it's not important whether the energy lost by car owner means more costs to him/her, but that have to be related to the gained energy and the cost of this device. It's not free, it costs money and energy to manufacture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone wrote, I also suspect that this micro generator can not pay itself out in reasonable time. And if it is in fact increasing the power demand from passing vehicles, then it's basically a gasoline to electrical -converter. And knowing the efficiency of typical ICE which is less than 25%, then one notices that this conversion has very bad efficiency, without even considering the efficiency of this speed bump.
Superlosch-sorry to disappoint you but, you are not the originator of this idea. I had this idea in the eighties and wrote it, and several others in a short story that was published on the net in the early nineties on American Mensa's website. The story is still at www.uncle32.com. Calling the item a "speed bump" is simply a misnomer. A more fitting name would have prevented a lot of this confusion and disagreement.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlas, just one more rationalization for us to keep our cars, when we should be implementing public transportation and solving the health crisis be getting people off their hind quarters. Gosh, just think we propel around these 4,000 lb monsters to convey our 200 lb frames and occassionaly with some passengers. I for one, am very tired of these rationalizations that have kept us chasing our tails since the Arab oil embargo in 70's.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExtracting energy from the natural process of slowing down is a great idea, it has many great applications. I, like other people here have thought of how to do the same thing years ago, mine would have been much less costly. superlosch if you have your original designs please don't fully disclose what it is you'll miss out on any patent privileges for what they call prior art, even if you were the one to disclose it -- run out and read a patent it yourself book before talking about it publicly and have people who you do talk to fill out a non-disclosure form before revealing it to them. Remember in this country the spoils of the invention goes to the one who makes it work and spend the time and money to test it out first therefore applying their idea first not necessarily the one who files a patent first.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do have a prototype built on conserving energy before you come to a complete stop but I haven't filed for a patent yet. It is one of the hallmarks of the US patent system where the person who first invent isn't necessary the one who gets the patent. I don't like it but you have to deal with the rules and the cards that are played.
Hybrids in this country are very rare so the only cost would be to hybrids as someone alluded to in an earlier post but the beneficial applications are huge.
Imagine extracting the energy from leaving off ramps at your local freeway where a set of smaller speed bumps slows you down to 35 mph before exiting saving wasted energy and your breaks.
Imagine not paying twice the tow at tow road booths, the cost of loss of efficiency to slow down to a stop to pay the tow and the cost of the tow, you just flow though at a reduce speed and no tow is needed because they extracted out the tow from the transfer of energy to the local grid. Tow roads already have small speed reducing grid to slow people down before entering the tow booths anyway......
rlb2 - You're right about patents. I have a design patent on a novelty item, but patenting levers, flywheels etc. isn't possible. However, copywriting the software that would control process is. A lower toll on toll roads would be nice, but it costs like $4 to cross the Golden Gate. Using generating devices on downhill roads to save brakes and generate, to me, has good potential. Brake friction surfaces are still mainly made of asbestos I think, reducing that dust in the air would have a general appeal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisungun wrote -Using generating devices on downhill roads to save brakes and generate, to me, has good potential. Brake friction surfaces are still mainly made of asbestos I think, reducing that dust in the air would have a general appeal
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisrlb2 reply - Your right that is the ultimate goal and those type of instruments are working today such as the Prius uses but at what cost, until gas prices go back up and I mean way up the consumer will not be interested in paying more for a system with less power that will in the long term end up costing them more.
The roads system in this country are deteriorating so local governments will have to come up with new ways to pay to maintain the roads. If they choose to use a new cost effective way to extract energy out of the highway system at peak power times by taxing the consumer then they are going to use the cheapest means available do that anyway so no matter what type of braking system that you use the regenerating breaking system may lose out on some of the roads no matter what.
The push to go electric will mean more resources needed to feed the electric grid and this method could be used to increase the electrical power to communities during rush hour times on the most power draining time of the day. I do understand that the better idea is the regenerating breaking systems but on paper the bottom line usually is the cost of the product vs. the cost saved. In other words are you paying more for the regenerating breaking system over time than you would if you chose not have a regenerating system in the first place and unfortunately that usually is answered in the market place.
D14BL0, now it wont, the panels point upward toward a peak, and the process of rolling over them causes this peak to "dip" as your car pushes it downwards, thus forcing (via gravity) a turbine to be turned and hence generating electricity. You could go forwards or in reverse as both ways are exactly the same.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissuperlosch, How about instead of crying that you thought it up ages ago, you got off your glutious maximus and put it into effect? Oh thats right... Its one thing to simply think something up and another to actually have the ability & fortitude to make it happen...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is sad is people complaining when progress is made while they sit there with their notebook scribbling LOL! I commend them for actually taking ACTION instead of simply "SAYING" something. Perhaps we can harness that wasted hot air? ;-)
What I find the most hillarous about all of this is the outcry of "Your stealing our energy!!!!" as if they are taking something which has never been taken before. Existing speed humps, inclination in roads, buildings being built on elevations, underground carparks, high-rise bridges, multi-story carparks, twisting roads instead of straight roads, etc, etc, etc
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll of these things have been "stealing energy" since the invention of roads back in rome... but is anyone complaining about them? Nooooo! Someone puts into practice something to recycle wasted energy and a bunch of cry babies start wailing about it being taken from them and costing more! Geez... I guarantee that 5 story carpark will "steal" far more energy from you than a speed bump ever will.
PERSPECTIVE PEOPLE!!!!
The problem with devices like this they have to generate enough power to be useful AND pay for their manufacture, shipping and installation. That is why it is usually still more sensible to have power plants where you centrally to take advantage of economies of scale.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou sir, are not thinking of it as a speedbump which already takes energy away from the car. When this device is used in place of a speedbump, that wasted energy normally absorbed by the car will instead be converted into electricity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm glad to see after reading a few more comments that there are some people who understand the functionality and uses of such a device. To the others who think that it would be stealing energy from the cars, please think about the bigger scope a little more before saying anything.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if this concept could be applied to pedestrian traffic, say in mall and entertainment venue entrances and exits. If it really does "steal" energy it wouldn't be a bad thing considering how many of us are overweight anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood points cerebral and mbrock. As I say in Dustin and the Aliens at www.uncle32.com a downhill road with a long series of these would save brakes, generate electricity, reduce asbestos in the air... ALL of which saves money and should pay for the cost the generators. By the way, when you see a speed bump, YOU slow the car down before you drive over it. Also, if you read Science News, you might remember a story about the Univerity of Texas using a flywheel to slow a vehicle and continue spinning to store the energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJohnay-good thinking- It was to be tried in a train station in England that way. The idea was to put piezo electric generators under the walkways and use the power to light the station. I don't recall where I read that, but it's probably findable again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Cerebral*Origami,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes that is very true, but there will come a time when the fossil fuels have dried up and the cost of producing energy rises. At that time things like this may become cost effective. It is better to have at least proved the science now and have it waiting for when it is needed than to throw it out and ignore it then suddenly get hit with a need to find alternative energy sources and have to do the research.
Do the science, "rate" its cost effectiveness, and put it on the list in the appropriate order. Thats a far better solution than calling it idiotic as some have & throwing it out with hysterical claims of "Yours stealing my energy" ;-)
@Johnay,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAbsolutely! In fact, I can easily see in the future that all surfaces which we travel over (be it on foot or in a vehicle) will have some kind of energy absorbing properties built into them.
They are currently researching the use of carbon nanotubes being used in materials to generate electricity through movement (the tubes rub against each other and the static electricity generated is stored in a battery). This science could easy be modified in the future so that energy isn't lost as heat and potential transferrance and that it is stored for later use. Of course it would have to be cost effective but it is a possibility
@ungun,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd where are the people screaming "You are stealing me energy" from having to climb the hill in the first place ;-)
Before discussing who is stealing energy from whom, let's look at the facts. Suppose a car with a mass of 2000 kg is lifted 10 cm on a bump, then the total energy spent is 0.00056 kWh or 2.0 kWs. Suppose the bump could convert the energy into electricity with a 50 percent efficiency, then it could make one lightbulb burn for about 10 seconds. The whole thing is just smart advertising at a time when we all want to think green. Why not make the Burger King buns green instead?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is just a concept but it shows we can capture energy from places one normally wouldn't think of. I've always wondered about well lit areas, like malls, having solar panels built into the walls or floor to recapture the light and convert it back into energy. You wouldn't need to burn the lights brighter, you're just collecting energy that is wasted anyway. Imagine panels that were efficient enough to help charge your electric car if you parked it under a street lamp over night. Everyone always thinks of the sun when it comes to solar energy but if you look around at night, you'll see a lot of light energy being wasted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEFFICIENCY will become the 'WatchWord" of the 21st century
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpeed Bump power is a perfect example of how we must husband the
MASSIVE consumption of energy that is ongoing in the electric age
Another example is size of air intakes for commercial jet airliners-
When engrs finally realized a jet engine at altitude HEATS the air ahead,
they finally did increase air intakes by 30% for more EFFICIENCY
How can anyone complain about fuel thievery when they are paying good money for nutritionally deficient food?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is OK if the system captures energy that would othewise be wasted as heat, as by braking the vehicle. It is no good if it requires the vehicle to provede additional energy. In that case it is a form of theft..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreg
This system is OK if it does not reguire additioal energy from the vehicle. Otherwise it is stealing from the vehicles owner.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI came up with the exactly idea just a couple weeks ago. I did send this idea to my company, but has not received any reply yet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd now I see it online and someone has already implemented it!.
At least, I feel happy because I am not lacking behind of the idea of how to go to a "green" power.