Quote:
Sleeping policemen
9:10am Monday 16th February 2009
By Alan Calvert »
WHATEVER next? A pilot scheme in London is to explore the use of sleeping policemen in the production of electricity.
No, not dozy coppers — the other kind, sometimes referred to as speed bumps.
I read about this the other day expecting to see some reference to Wallace and Gromit, but it seems this is an entirely serious idea from a respected engineer called Peter Hughes.
He has developed ramps costing between £20,000 and £55,000 that are designed to capture the kinetic energy of vehicles passing over them.
Traffic causes panels to go up and down, setting a cog in motion that turns a motor to produce mechanical energy.
It is claimed that 10 ramps could generate the same power as one wind turbine.
Ealing Council has secured £150,000 in funding to see if the idea works and Mr Hughes has apparently talked to more than 200 other councils as well.
It all sounds frightfully clever, but I can see some snags.
I suspect that even if enough cars hit the bumps — I cannot be the only motorist in Bolton who goes out of his way to avoid them — maintenance to keep them working would be a problem over a long period of time.
And, as we all know, slumbering law-enforcers of this kind are usually installed on estates away from the main roads as a means of slowing cars down to preserve lives.
For these bumps to be any use at all they would surely have to be a feature of busier thoroughfares.
Still, it is good to see that innovative folk think of things like this.
We are told the world needs more “green” energy and this seems to be an extension of the thinking behind the opening of a nightclub in Rotterdam that is run partly on energy generated by people dancing.
Elsewhere, there is interest in using pedestrians’ footsteps to power lighting at shopping centres.
Mind you, if the retail trade continues to be hit by the recession there might be a better case for a few candles dotted here and there.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/search/4 ... policemen/Reader in tonight's press comments on smoothness as reducing CO2. He suggests rumble strips which kick in to discomfort at above the lolly.
I agree. It's quite possible to make these fit to required limit
Matter of Physics. Tonight's reader showed he understands Physics here
I may have this in wrong fora, Peter .. Claire .. et al.. Move to CHAT or SOAP if you think best.
I put it here as it was in the Bolton press.
All this is down to the wonder of the creative mind and I suppose we have to believe that this idea has legs, so to speak.
Will we see the day when electricity in the posh flats surrounding the Lord’s cricket ground is provided by gizmos of this nature under the run-up of large fast bowlers such as Andrew Flintoff?
Is it likely that Premiership footballers chasing a bag of wind around a field will create enough energy to keep the floodlights shining?
No, I don’t think so either
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It's typical of the disjointed thinking so often exhibited by Councils! I wonder if the time will come when the same council produces one report on how much CO2 they save with this brilliant invention and the same department produces a report on how much extra CO2 from road vehicles are created by speed humps! The difference will be the efficiency of the mechanism under the speed hump!
. We would never run out of power on that basis.
and Krissi :tame cat: // Good grief.. they do doughnuts filled with really delightfully tasty and still healthy in essence. (I just cannot get enough of Lakeland stuffed doughnuts from the wild one and Wensleydale/ginger ones from the"not so tame" one 