Speed Bumps that Produce Energy

Although speed bumps serve a valuable service, they quite often get a bad rap for being nothing but an inconvenience. However, as each industry pushes towards providing “greener” products, even speed bumps are being given a new lease for being innovative and environmentally conscientious.

In October of 2011 a prototype for an energy producing speed bump was introduced to attendants of a circus & gun show in Roanoke VA. As traffic left the venue, a small sign lit up as vehicles passed over the speed bump beneath. The sign was powered by the speed bump collecting energy from the passing cars. A similar device was introduced back in 2009 in London, however these were much flatter and used primarily for the energy production and less for traffic calming.

The intended purpose of these new high-tech speed bumps is to harness the already existing kinetic energy produced by the vehicles passing over the bump. In the model demonstrated in Roanoke, the weight of the vehicle triggers an actuator which is connected to a generator. Each time a vehicle compresses the bump, the energy produced is either used at the moment, or stored for later use.

The idea is that the energy can be collected from an already existing source at a very low cost. The energy can then be stored, and used to power street lights, traffic lights and city lamps. If used on a grand scale, a system this efficient could save millions of dollars each year simply by harnessing an already existing resource of power; kinetic energy.

As new research becomes available, and new ideas emerge, the speed bump just might leave its bad reputation in the dust and be viewed as a source of green energy, rather than a pain in the tailpipe!