[LINK] another way to generate power

[Michael Skeggs mike@bystander.net]

This system is stealing energy from the fuel tanks of the trucks driving
over the plates.
>From the linked article, the system needs 2000-3000 truck movements per day
to generate optimally.
Assuming 20 'plates', each receiving 3000 movements generates 10,000kWh,
then a truck moving over these plates must generate 3.3kWh.
This is a substantial amount of power, about equivalent in energy to a 1/3
of a liter of petrol.
The ABS says big trucks use 30-50liters per 100km, so each trip over the
plates steals up to a kilometer of range from the trucks.
To me, this looks like an incredibly complicated and expensive system to
capture a little bit of energy from haulier's fuel tanks.
By dividing the small amount over thousands of trucks, it is hoped the
stolen energy amount will be small enough to go unnoticed.
This kind of system is about as far from green as you can get - it is
wasteful and inefficient compared to generating the power traditionally, it
wastes capital and resources to build a complex system, and it leads to
increased fuel consumption in the vehicles being exploited.
And disgracefully, they are hoping to get renewable energy certificates for
the power they generate.

Regards,
Michael Skeggs

2009/7/2 Jan Whitaker <jwhit at melbpc.org.au>

> weren't we speaking of supermarkets? why not add roads/cars to the mix? ;-)
>
> >California-based AEST has developed a
> ><http://cleantech.com/news/4382/aest-harnessing-kinetic-energy-road>
> >road plate technology that create electricity when pressure is
> >applied to it, such as a car driving over it.  A system of 20 of its
> >plates can generate 10,000 to 12,000 kWh per day and costs
> >approximately $2.5M USD to deploy.  With power in the U.S. at over
> >$0.10/kWh, that's a a savings of over $1,000 a day and over $300,000
> >per year.  At that rate the system will repay itself in just over 6 years.
> >  -------------
> >
> http://www.dailytech.com/England+Supermarket+is+Powered+by+Shoppers+Kinetic+Energy/article15476.htm
> >
>
>
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>
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> sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
> ~Madeline L'Engle, writer
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