Estimation of vehicles movements as a sustainable energy source in some main roads in Iran

Abstract

Rising demand for electrical energy and problems associated with using fossil fuels has led to the exploitation of renewable energy resources. Vehicle's motions can be used as a renewable energy resource. This paper examines the application of vehicle movement energy on a road as a renewable energy source and a remarkable mechanism for extracting the energy. The mechanism is called a pedal power plant. The pedal power plant is a hydraulic system that is adapted from an offshore energy extraction system called Oyster. The pedals push down and compress operating fluid while cars crossing them. The high-pressure fluid is stored in a high-pressure reservoir. Then, it discharges to a turbine or a hydraulic motor to drive a generator, generates electricity. The power plant performance depends on its efficiency, number of pedals and number of cars. Therefore, preliminary design of the system required a busy road, a suitable number of the pedals with high efficiency of the system. Comparison between harvested energy from vehicles movement with a solar and a wind power plant in the same regions, shows that for main roads with average 6.7 million traffic load in a month, the pedal power plant with 20 pairs of pedals and efficiency of minimum 0.5 can extract 820 kWh electricity per month which is equivalent to generate electricity from 720 m² panel area of a solar power plant. Although in the same areas, the wind current does not meet the minimum requirement of a wind power plant. Besides to store the electricity from solar power plant it should either be close to a national grid network or required batteries storage unites which in turn is not economical.