A novel way to generate power, seemingly from nothing.

[AK83]

It's always pleasing to see inventions that do some work from normally non productive areas of society.

as a non working example of this idea is wind farms. I love wind farms. They even look fantastic(IMO!!) but they are usually placed in quite attractive areas, or farmland or whatever.
That's not a good use of non productive areas of society. farms should be used for farming, even tho individual wind turbines don't take up much area as a percentage of a farm block, and the land can still be used for some farming, it does still take up space in some small way. Or if placed in visually attractive areas, and even tho I think wind towers themselves have a nice form, they almost certainly detract from the acceptable visual beauty of the area they populate.
For the benefit they do provide tho .. maybe worth the loss. I have many photos(being a keen geeky amateur landscape photographer myself) of wind towers in visually appealing locations.

BUT! what about those generally useless locations that we all know of that don't get fully utilised?
They're ugly, depressing .. and pretty much go unnoticed by society because of their dullness/uglyness/etc.
They already serve a specific purpose(eg. street lights) ugly as sin, and we don't usually notice the allocated space, other than it's specific purpose .. to provide lighting.
So we notice and appreciate the lighting, but we don't ever(usually .. I know I don't!) look at the post itself, the form, the function, the idea that it's useful in some other way.

Street lighting may not be the best example of this specific purpose usage(ie. the provision of ambient lighting), as sometimes they can be used for another purpose(eg. maybe a street sign).

But what if all of these banal and otherwise unnoticed provisions could be used for some social good .. in whatever way.
What about generating power? Could street lighting, or street signposts generate electricity?

Apparently this company thinks so:

Alpha 311 turbines (https://alpha-311.com/#home).

So wind turbines that operate vertically .. so what?
The so what is the important point here, in that there is 'power' in having vehicles zooming past you .. and that power is wind.
Not enough to drive a horizontal wind turbine of course, but according to this Alpha 311 mob, more than enough to drive a vertical turbine .. and it makes sense too.
How many times a car comes past at speed and you feel it's residual wind blast .. or a truck with it's cyclonic wind blast as it flies past. So why not take advantage of it.

The turbine still generates power when wind blows, just not as efficiently as a horizontal turbine. but in no wind environments, a vertical turbine can still generate some power(not much).
But one placed next to a road and on a busy road(which they all seem to be even at 4AM!!!) where is this damned traffic going and why aren't they in bed .. oops! rant off, back onto busy roads and annoying traffic that just won't let up .. ahhh! I hate traffic .. oh! .. sorry again .. busy roads and turbines on light and sign posts.

So it seems, otherwise useless roadside apparatus can be useful in some way afterall! [thumbsupbig]

Line the freeways with these things, and generate what would ultimately become free energy .. free in the sense that these locations are otherwise occupied or single or dual use only.
If this idea catches on, and it eliminates the need for a few windfarms in visually complimentary, or otherwise productive, locations .. would be a good day for humanity.

The obvious problem arises in that we are human, and humans are pretty much the stupidest species. Can't help themselves, and just leave things alone.
It's just our nature.... more curious than the most curious cat. There's obviously the good side(ie. inventions that help the world, but also the dark side and that is the vandal/scumbag that will invariably ruin the theoretical operation of a brilliant idea.

Anyhow, enough of my ranting on traffic and scumbaggedness .. just thought someone might be interested in the notion that not all is lost.
Where some (ie. scumbag types) like to watch the world burn through their useless endeavours, there are enough folks out there that want to convert seemingly useless endeavours to help stop the world from burning.

I found this invention whilst looking up more info on vertical wind turbines, which I want to use on my shed in the short term future. Found on YOUTUBE (https://youtu.be/gcSnwW5v3f8) who explains it in a bit more detail.

[DiscoMick]

Innovative ideas are certainly interesting.
South Korea has a cycleway covered with solar panels which shade the cyclists, power the street lighting and can charge EVs.

This South Korean Bike Highway Has A 20-Mile Solar Roof (https://www.fastcompany.com/3048661/this-south-korean-bike-highway-has-a-20-mile-solar-roof)

[101RRS]

It's always pleasing to see inventions that do some work from normally non productive areas of society.

as a non working example of this idea is wind farms. I love wind farms. They even look fantastic(IMO!!) but they are usually placed in quite attractive areas, or farmland or whatever.
That's not a good use of non productive areas of society. farms should be used for farming, even tho individual wind turbines don't take up much area as a percentage of a farm block, and the land can still be used for some farming, it does still take up space in some small way. Or if placed in visually attractive areas, and even tho I think wind towers themselves have a nice form, they almost certainly detract from the acceptable visual beauty of the area they populate.
For the benefit they do provide tho .. maybe worth the loss. I have many photos(being a keen geeky amateur landscape photographer myself) of wind towers in visually appealing locations.

BUT! what about those generally useless locations that we all know of that don't get fully utilised?
They're ugly, depressing .. and pretty much go unnoticed by society because of their dullness/uglyness/etc.
They already serve a specific purpose(eg. street lights) ugly as sin, and we don't usually notice the allocated space, other than it's specific purpose .. to provide lighting.
So we notice and appreciate the lighting, but we don't ever(usually .. I know I don't!) look at the post itself, the form, the function, the idea that it's useful in some other way.

Street lighting may not be the best example of this specific purpose usage(ie. the provision of ambient lighting), as sometimes they can be used for another purpose(eg. maybe a street sign).

But what if all of these banal and otherwise unnoticed provisions could be used for some social good .. in whatever way.
What about generating power? Could street lighting, or street signposts generate electricity?

Apparently this company thinks so:

Alpha 311 turbines (https://alpha-311.com/#home).

So wind turbines that operate vertically .. so what?
The so what is the important point here, in that there is 'power' in having vehicles zooming past you .. and that power is wind.
Not enough to drive a horizontal wind turbine of course, but according to this Alpha 311 mob, more than enough to drive a vertical turbine .. and it makes sense too.
How many times a car comes past at speed and you feel it's residual wind blast .. or a truck with it's cyclonic wind blast as it flies past. So why not take advantage of it.

The turbine still generates power when wind blows, just not as efficiently as a horizontal turbine. but in no wind environments, a vertical turbine can still generate some power(not much).
But one placed next to a road and on a busy road(which they all seem to be even at 4AM!!!) where is this damned traffic going and why aren't they in bed .. oops! rant off, back onto busy roads and annoying traffic that just won't let up .. ahhh! I hate traffic .. oh! .. sorry again .. busy roads and turbines on light and sign posts.

So it seems, otherwise useless roadside apparatus can be useful in some way afterall! [thumbsupbig]

Line the freeways with these things, and generate what would ultimately become free energy .. free in the sense that these locations are otherwise occupied or single or dual use only.
If this idea catches on, and it eliminates the need for a few windfarms in visually complimentary, or otherwise productive, locations .. would be a good day for humanity.

The obvious problem arises in that we are human, and humans are pretty much the stupidest species. Can't help themselves, and just leave things alone.
It's just our nature.... more curious than the most curious cat. There's obviously the good side(ie. inventions that help the world, but also the dark side and that is the vandal/scumbag that will invariably ruin the theoretical operation of a brilliant idea.

Anyhow, enough of my ranting on traffic and scumbaggedness .. just thought someone might be interested in the notion that not all is lost.
Where some (ie. scumbag types) like to watch the world burn through their useless endeavours, there are enough folks out there that want to convert seemingly useless endeavours to help stop the world from burning.

I found this invention whilst looking up more info on vertical wind turbines, which I want to use on my shed in the short term future. Found on YOUTUBE (https://youtu.be/gcSnwW5v3f8) who explains it in a bit more detail.

War and Peace - I gave up reading - you need to include a one paragraph executive summary. [thumbsupbig]

[AK83]

War and Peace - I gave up reading - you need to include a one paragraph executive summary. [thumbsupbig]

[bigrolf]

yep!

just hit the youtube link.

[Fattima]

There is a section of path alongside the Eastern Freeway where you are very close to the traffic. Riding my bike along there you notice the headwind created by the traffic. Interesting idea.

[101RRS]

[bigrolf]

yep!

just hit the youtube link.

Got tired of reading woffle so did not get that far [bighmmm]

[350RRC]

There is a section of path alongside the Eastern Freeway where you are very close to the traffic. Riding my bike along there you notice the headwind created by the traffic. Interesting idea.

Have ridden along there.................. you also cop a huge amount of fumes.

DL

[DiscoMick]

Switching to EVs will eliminate the exhaust fumes. Add charging points and the EVs could stop for a charge and a coffee.

[speleomike]

Hi

The Alpha 311 turbines get their energy from your petrol or diesel or your car battery if its an EV. They will extract more from a box car like a Hummer than a sleek Tesla or sports car. The turbine extracts energy from the air that your car displaces by slowing it down - this creates more drag on your car compared to if the air was undisturbed. As cars get more aerodynamic that method of extracting energy will become less profitable and its does nothing to reduce energy consumption. The idea should be consigned to the dust bin.

Mike

[AK83]

Hi

..... The turbine extracts energy from the air that your car displaces by slowing it down - this creates more drag on your car compared to if the air was undisturbed. As cars get more aerodynamic that method of extracting energy will become less profitable and its does nothing to reduce energy consumption. The idea should be consigned to the dust bin.

Mike

LOL! so the turbine ONLY .. increases drag on the passing vehicle .. but the lamp post or sign post it's wrapped around doesn't?

The idea is to utilise already installed infrastructure as the base for the installation of the generators, and even if they only produced enough power to light up the street light for the day .. well that could be millions of watts of power now not required for powering street lighting.

And we don't seriously expect car drag coefficients to reach zero any time soon do we .. where your comments may have an actual bearing on the drag on the passing vehicles.

And what of trucks and delivery vans? Do you seriously expect to get very low drag coefficients out of these boxes to the point where they will be impacted in any meaningful way?

While what you say is true, it's really only true up to a point, and 'real world' effects needs to be considered.
The drag impact would be measured in 100ths of percentage points .. in effect, not worth consideration compared to potential benefits if these things were made cheap enough to be installed en masse.

[speleomike]

Hi


LOL! so the turbine ONLY .. increases drag on the passing vehicle .. but the lamp post or sign post it's wrapped around doesn't?

The lamp post or sign post will cause drag also. The difference is that the turbine is designed to capture that air and create drag, and generate useful power, the lamp post does not capture as much air, has less drag, and just lets that power dissipate. With good design you can get that turbine to create more drag as a car goes past than a smooth lamp post. In the same way a row of trees will create more drag to a car than row of smooth lamp posts. The energy extracted from the car can be seen as the movement of the leaves and branches.

Do you want the cars to have as friction-less travel as possible (and use less energy) or extract some energy from them, turn it into power at low efficiency and then send that power to somewhere else and claim that that saves power?

Just look at the energy balance; if the turbines generate a significant enough amount of energy to be useful then that has to come at the expense of taking tiny amounts of power from many cars. It's not an efficient process.

Mike

[AK83]

I really think you're making it sound like the turbines is going to make cars less efficient in some appreciable manner.

I dunno a lot about aerodynamics.. just basic stuff really.
But, I think anyone is going to be hard pressed to display that a series of turbines wrapped around existing hardware along the side of any major arterial road is going to seriously affect the drag coefficient of those cars, and therefore their respective 'energy usage'.

1/. the existing hardware is already the culprit in causing drag on these cars. Again, I doubt that this drag is in any way significant .. but as I said, I'm not an aero engineer, so not in a position to calculate this .. so for sure doubt my ramblings.
2/. there is almost certainly going to be other fixtures and fittings along these major arterial roads too .. eg massive signposts, fencing(ie. safety fencing) and whatever other drag reducing fixtures that you generally see on the side of all major roads.
3/. I have never personally experienced any difference in fuel usage due to drag caused by roadside hardware causing significant aero drag having driven many millions of kilometers. Hundreds of klms driven on a major city freeway or desolate backroad .. I rarely see any difference driven pretty much consistently.
4/. vehicles are not really expected to get much more aero in the forseeable future, and as I understand aero(very basically remember), the major problem with making cars too slippery is that they also become unstable in variable conditions. So any further reduction in drag coefficients in future models of cars should see negligible effects on fuel usage by the turbine installations.
5/. reminder that these things are wind turbines too .. ie. they don't even need vehicles passing by to generate their power .. light winds also get them generating.
6/. if there was only a single vehicle ever!... in any part of the world at any one time .. ie. we didnt' have the insane levels of traffic that predominate the urban landscape, maybe your argument could have some merit.
But my (basic, again) interpretation of the system is that traffic is creating the draft/turbulence that get these turbines generating. So that as a vehicle is passing by, the generator is already moving(ie. has momentum) and the next vehicle is 'assisting' the turbine to keep up it's momentum. ie. in normal traffic the drag effect of a turbine ON the next passing vehicle is even more diminished.
7/. if fuel miserly-ness is a major concern for you, maybe take up a cause that WILL actually make a difference. From observation of 12 hr days on the road pretty much most days of the week .. I reckon at least half the cars and trucks on the road drive with underinflated tyres. A far bigger impact on fuel use on a vehicle, than a thousandth of a percent of increased drag on already quite efficient regular vehicle.

To knock this idea on it's head, before it's even trialled/tested .. sounds alarmingly short sighted.
About the only real criticism that would crop up with this idea, as always seems to happen .. is the actual cost/benefit performance. Will it be what is claimed by the company.

But from my earlier comment about observing traffic(and many vehicles with low tyre pressure(s) ... this turbine idea would work an absolute treat on our(Melbourne's) Ring Road. This road(if anyone knows it) .. is trafficked pretty much 24/7(primarily the 30 or so klms from it's south to the Hume Freeway).