Political Crossfire Forums

connermt · Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1526 Location: CMH OHIO

I recently watched a show that included this energy generating 'bridge' (for lack of a better term) that seemed to be a great idea! If I remember right, it works like this: A piece of road (about the size of a large car) is removed & replace with flexible metal pieces that are attached together in the shape of a 'W'. When a car rolls over the bridge, it causes the metal W to buckle/bend/flex a little. Underneath the bridge, there are some mechanicals that take the movement & produce energy. Currently, according to this program, these are in place in some European cities & they are used to generate energy to street & traffic lights, as well as keeping them frost/ice free in the winter. There are hopes of installing them in the US as well.
According to this program, a single day's worth of energy created by a single bridge in a medium size city generates enough energy to power a house for (I believe they said) a whole week.
The specific output of this bridge I am unsure of, but that is to the best of my memory.

TNBiologist · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 962 Location: Tennessee

Sounds cool but how would that whole bend and flex idea work with a large bridge or even a small bridge that sees a lot of traffic? Good idea but need some more info on it, You don't happen to know which european counties are using it do you?

poweRob · Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 22671

I'd like to read up on it too if you know of a link.

John Galt · Joined: 04 May 2004 Posts: 21589 Location: Minnesota

Very interesting.

There has to be a catch on the cost... Ahh no matter, we're 9 trillion in debt what's another trillion.

In any event recapturing the energy of the car is a very good idea. But cost is always a major factor...

Pebble · Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Posts: 1143

That's actually a really interesting idea.

Like the above if you've got a link or some sort of lead i'd like to read it. :)

perdidochas · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 15424 Location: Florida

John Galt wrote: Very interesting.

There has to be a catch on the cost... Ahh no matter, we're 9 trillion in debt what's another trillion.

In any event recapturing the energy of the car is a very good idea. But cost is always a major factor...

Interesting theoretical question: How much will it decrease gas mileage in the cars crossing it?

GTTofAK · Joined: 09 Jan 2005 Posts: 5968 Location: Alaska

connermt wrote: I recently watched a show that included this energy generating 'bridge' (for lack of a better term) that seemed to be a great idea! If I remember right, it works like this: A piece of road (about the size of a large car) is removed & replace with flexible metal pieces that are attached together in the shape of a 'W'. When a car rolls over the bridge, it causes the metal W to buckle/bend/flex a little. Underneath the bridge, there are some mechanicals that take the movement & produce energy. Currently, according to this program, these are in place in some European cities & they are used to generate energy to street & traffic lights, as well as keeping them frost/ice free in the winter. There are hopes of installing them in the US as well.
According to this program, a single day's worth of energy created by a single bridge in a medium size city generates enough energy to power a house for (I believe they said) a whole week.
The specific output of this bridge I am unsure of, but that is to the best of my memory.

Interesting I would like to see more one this. I'm always worried about initial costs with something like this. Since I work in power I have seen many many many novel ideas to generate power. Unfortunately many of them fall flat on their face when initial costs and lifetime are examined. It is not too uncommon for many of these novel ideas to run upward of $50,000/kwh startup costs and a short lifetime. Such letdowns have made me jaded. My instincts tell me that this is a very expensive addition with very little power generation.

poweRob · Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 22671

GTTofAK wrote: connermt wrote: I recently watched a show that included this energy generating 'bridge' (for lack of a better term) that seemed to be a great idea! If I remember right, it works like this: A piece of road (about the size of a large car) is removed & replace with flexible metal pieces that are attached together in the shape of a 'W'. When a car rolls over the bridge, it causes the metal W to buckle/bend/flex a little. Underneath the bridge, there are some mechanicals that take the movement & produce energy. Currently, according to this program, these are in place in some European cities & they are used to generate energy to street & traffic lights, as well as keeping them frost/ice free in the winter. There are hopes of installing them in the US as well.
According to this program, a single day's worth of energy created by a single bridge in a medium size city generates enough energy to power a house for (I believe they said) a whole week.
The specific output of this bridge I am unsure of, but that is to the best of my memory.

Interesting I would like to see more one this. I'm always worried about initial costs with something like this. Since I work in power I have seen many many many novel ideas to generate power. Unfortunately many of them fall flat on their face when initial costs and lifetime are examined. It is not too uncommon for many of these novel ideas to run upward of $50,000/kwh startup costs and a short lifetime. Such letdowns have made me jaded. My instincts tell me that this is a very expensive addition with very little power generation.

Wouldn't it be similar maybe to costs of in-road weigh station scales maybe or in-road stop light triggers?

I'd think that it would be relatively cheap in that it is just a minor movement of the road insert flexing (or so I'd imagine) then attach that movement to a generator of some sort.

Dunno. Could be cheap if they could implement without having to fabricate it from scratch by using materials out there in existence.

I really need to read up on how they have it set up.

connermt · Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1526 Location: CMH OHIO

perdidochas wrote: John Galt wrote: Very interesting.

There has to be a catch on the cost... Ahh no matter, we're 9 trillion in debt what's another trillion.

In any event recapturing the energy of the car is a very good idea. But cost is always a major factor...

Interesting theoretical question: How much will it decrease gas mileage in the cars crossing it?

It was a documentary on the Discover Science Channel the other day - not sure if there is a link, but you guys might look up the on the channel's website. They are usually at an intersection where cars have to stop anyway, so gas mileage shouldn't be affected. It would be no different than going over a speed bump. It is about the length of a small car & about as wide as a regular car (of European standards, which are normally smaller than US cars). I am sure they would increase size to deal with US sized autos.

connermt · Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1526 Location: CMH OHIO

GTTofAK wrote: connermt wrote: I recently watched a show that included this energy generating 'bridge' (for lack of a better term) that seemed to be a great idea! If I remember right, it works like this: A piece of road (about the size of a large car) is removed & replace with flexible metal pieces that are attached together in the shape of a 'W'. When a car rolls over the bridge, it causes the metal W to buckle/bend/flex a little. Underneath the bridge, there are some mechanicals that take the movement & produce energy. Currently, according to this program, these are in place in some European cities & they are used to generate energy to street & traffic lights, as well as keeping them frost/ice free in the winter. There are hopes of installing them in the US as well.
According to this program, a single day's worth of energy created by a single bridge in a medium size city generates enough energy to power a house for (I believe they said) a whole week.
The specific output of this bridge I am unsure of, but that is to the best of my memory.

Interesting I would like to see more one this. I'm always worried about initial costs with something like this. Since I work in power I have seen many many many novel ideas to generate power. Unfortunately many of them fall flat on their face when initial costs and lifetime are examined. It is not too uncommon for many of these novel ideas to run upward of $50,000/kwh startup costs and a short lifetime. Such letdowns have made me jaded. My instincts tell me that this is a very expensive addition with very little power generation.

I can only comment on what I saw, which was only about the last ¾ of the particular show. There are no electronic mechanisms on it - it was all mechanical in nature & very simple. From what little I could see, it looked like a couple pistons that moves & creates energy that is stored...somewhere.