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 sjames on Wednesday July 08 2015, @11:05AM
From reading the writeup on the university website, I get the impression they are re-capturing the energy that goes into generating static charge (and ultimately heat). If so, and if it's significant, then this would make sense.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Wednesday July 08 2015, @12:08PM
The surprise there would be to find that the static charge accounted for any significant part of the frictional energy loss c.f. mechanical heating and noise.