Practical application of the piezoelectric effect for energy utilization

Creating a strain of M13 virus with piezoelectric properties, which was discussed in this topic , can have interesting consequences. The fact is that although the use of piezoelectrics to collect waste of mechanical energy has not yet become widespread, this idea is not at all a fantasy and not a matter of a distant future. And the invention of cheaper, safer and more effective piezoelectric elements may well bring piezoenergy to a new level.



Israeli startup Innowatech is developing and implementing piezoelectric kinetic energy utilization systems. When driving cars, trains or pedestrians, part of their energy is spent on the deformation of the road surface. As a result of the deformation, the coating heats up, heat is dissipated and energy is lost forever. If you embed it in a pavement, pavement or railway track of piezoelectric elements, a part of it can be returned to work. And quite tangible part.

So, experiments have shown that the kilometer section of the highway, which drives 600 cars per hour, is capable of producing 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The Israeli road network can produce up to 160 megawatt-hours. This is about 2% of the country's energy consumption. Not very much, but more than enough for the entire roadside infrastructure to be powered by this energy. Moreover, such a system turns an ordinary road into a “smart” one, which collects statistics on the number of cars that have passed, their speed and weight.
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Innowatech offers a similar solution for the railway - special piezoelectric gaskets between rails and sleepers. Other uses are heavy industrial equipment like presses and forging hammers or runways of airfields.

The company claims that the use of piezogenerators only slightly increases the cost of road construction. They do not reduce the usable road or pavement and do not contain moving parts, and their service life is about 30 years. In 2010, Innowatech contracted to use their generators in the reconstruction of the Venice-Trieste highway in Italy. Construction is expected to end in 2013. On the construction of piezoelectric roads and think in California.


PS Another direction of utilization of energy dissipated transport - generators, built-in suspension of the car. True, their designs are usually based on mechanics or hydraulics, and not on piezoelectricity ( one , two , three ).