It’s been quite a while since we last featured a new means of energy collection. From sea-based wind turbines to last month’s discovery of floating solar balloons, the green revolution is upon us. Today, a new player is entering the eco-arena, and it means to harness the energy wasted by highway-based transport trucks. Special plates on the road are compressed by the weight of heavy trucks, which in turn pumps hydraulic fluid that turns a generator to produce electricity. Entrepreneur Terry Kenney claims that his device, dubbed the Dragon Power Station, could generate “7,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each day, which is enough to power up to 1,750 homes”.
“The plates Kenney developed for trucks are wide and sturdy. They were designed to weather the crushing force of trucks weighing up to 180,000 lbs. He developed a smaller version of the road plate for sedans and other passenger cars, which he hopes to one day see installed at high-traffic theme parks and toll bridges.” In a round about way, it helps offset the the emissions caused from burning dirty and expensive fossil fuels. That being said, just imagine the positive savings if all the road traffic was of the electric and hybrid variety.
