Converting the energy of a moving automobile into an efficient power source for that same automobile is one of the Holy Grails of motor transport, and new research suggests an important part of the solution could be to look at the friction generated between car tyres and the road itself.
Engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have developed a nanogenerator that’s capable of harvesting the energy produced by the friction of a tyre rolling along the ground.
For those aren't going to RTFA no matter what: Their test vehicle was a toy car, so I've got some concerns about whether or not this will scale up to full-sized models. But if it does, it could potentially vast increase the range of electric cars, or allow them to use smaller batteries.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 08 2015, @02:20AM
Huh! Wishful thinking!
While it may happen, the private initiative must be encouraged: prepare yourself for the power sold to you on/by the road at a double price of the network: it's not "how you produce it" that determines the price, its the utility of it that you are charged for (and the "utility" will be defined as "emergency assistance for empty battery cases").
Also be prepared to be restricted on the amount of energy you use at home to recharge your car, we can't have it cheap for everybody (remember Enron?) and the world is warming up. Besides the current gas stations (to be converted) need to be kept working - you wouldn't want unemployment to rise, would you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford