Eco Factor: Pads harvest mechanical energy from trains.
After testing piezoelectric energy generators that can produce renewable energy from passing cars on the highway, Israel’s Innowattech has now moved to trains with a similar product. The company has performed a project with the National Railway Company of Israel to examine IPEG PAD, a rail pad that can be a solution to the smart rail field.
The test included the replacement of 32 existing railway pads with the company’s IPEG PADs, which feature piezoelectric generators designed to produce electricity for local solutions. The pads harvest mechanical strain and convert it to electrical power, which can be used to determine the number of wheels, weight of each wheel and the wheel’s position. In addition the speed of the train and the wheel diameter can also be calculated.
The company states that areas of railway track that get between 10 and 20 ten-car trains an hour can be used to produce up to 120KWh of renewable electricity per hour, which can be used by the railways or transferred to the grid.
Via: Energy Harvesting Journal
