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Los Angeles is the car capital of the world. Here, traffic has become a daily chat topic for people because they often have to estimate how long it takes to get back home from work every day.
In the face of coming and going vehicles, some people have proposed the idea of ​​using these traffic flows to generate electricity. Their idea is to insert piezoelectric crystals below the parking lane and use the vibrations generated by these traffic streams to generate electricity.
This may sound like a fantasy, but the California Energy Commission is preparing to invest $2 million in researching this technology.
This is also part of the state's clean air campaign. The state’s goal is to provide renewable energy to half of the state by 2030.
This kind of piezoelectric technology is not new technology. Its most common application is an electronic lighter. People use piezoelectric crystals to produce flames. Electric ignitors for barbecue use the same technology.
Microphones in laptops also use crystals that convert sound vibrations in speech into electrical signals that can be processed by computers.
Piezoelectric crystals generate charge when they are pressed. Scientists estimate that if these piezoelectric crystals were laid on a 10-mile highway in Burbank, they would generate enough electricity to supply the entire city. The city has a population of more than 100,000.
At present, this technology has only been applied on a small scale.
Since 2009, display screens in the Tokyo subway station of the East Japan Railway Company have been powered by people walking on the floor using piezoelectric technology.
In Rio de Janeiro, one of the most notorious slums in Brazil, the startup PaveGen laid similar tiles under a football pitch. People can run nighttime floodlights when they run up and down to play football. This means that the children can continue playing football at night instead of idly gathering in the streets.
The company has used this technology to power street lights in a street in central London. It also implemented a similar power supply plan in Washington.
California legislator Mike Gatto was very happy because the value of this technology was finally recognized.
“California is full of road networks. Our car culture is both good and bad.†He said, “No society can use 100% solar energy. Therefore, we need to collect energy from many different sources. I I think this technology has great potential for development."
In fact, as early as 2011, Gatto proposed a similar power supply proposal and the result was rejected by the governor.
"Six months later, I received a call from the assistant to the governor. He said they were mistaken and he was prepared to ask the California Energy Commission to evaluate the technology," he said.
Finally, funds were allocated to the University of California and other institutions for investigating the potential of this technology.
Mike Gravely from the California Energy Commission explained why this committee pursued the technology.
“California has a lot of active renewable energy policies, and we have a lot of cars here. They are running around on the road all day. If we can capture the energy they produce, then this will be another energy policy goal that can be achieved in the future. Renewable energy," he said.
Piezoelectric crystals will be placed in coin-sized devices. These coin-sized devices will be placed densely underneath the highway, with a few millimeters between each device.
This pilot project will operate for 18 months. During this period, people will assess how much such equipment is needed, how deep buried under the cement roads, and which sections are the most suitable.
Gravel said that if this pilot project proves to be successful, then they may be further promoted.
“If there are roads that need to be lengthened or repaired, we can use this opportunity to embed piezoelectric crystals without having to build a well-developed freeway,†he said.
“Some people want us to do this on all roads in California, but we still don’t know if it will be useful.â€
This device may capture more than just energy.
"One of the contractors considered using them to capture relevant information to help better manage road traffic," he said.
Critics may say that avoiding the use of fossil fuels should reduce the number of cars on the road instead of using the huge traffic on California's roads. However, Grafley pointed out that California hopes to launch 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025.
In April 2017, the American Lung Association reported that the level of airborne pollution in Los Angeles reached its lowest point in history. In spite of this, Southern California is still the most polluted area in the United States, ranking first in the United States in terms of ozone pollution levels.
A New York University research report shows that improved air quality can make California reduce more than 3,000 cases of pollution-related deaths each year.
Some people still question the piezoelectric crystal power generation plan.
Urban architect Peter Calthorpe has been calling for the creation of green cities by changing lifestyles.
“I’m very suspicious of some costly solutions. There are a lot of technologies that are capturing energy everywhere. But this is not the answer we want. People don’t want solutions to change their lives. But that’s related to us.†The quality of life. We only have to change to create a green city."
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