03 November 2009 - 15:00
Good vibrations
Lexus engineers in Japan have worked out how to convert the energy generated by vehicles driving over a bridge into electricity to power the structure's lights.
They then go on to say that some clever types are working out how to collect energy generated by raindrops falling and people walking - so you could perhaps one day power your city by walking around it. Good stuff.
(Pity about the Lexus guff at the end, though.)
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yeahh dats a really gud idea, yayyyyy!!1 first comment!!!!! lol by da way wens da new topgear series cumin out??
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Wow, even TopGear's tenuous-link skills have been thwarted by Lexus. Making electricity from vibrating things is a reason for buying an LS600h, apparently. I like the idea, though. Save the world a little by thundering across a bridge in a 5.0 IS-F!
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uzzy94, later this month. Now learn to spell.
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Wow double double posts :S 15th November to be precise.
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That should please the Masons.
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I have never seen the Lexus isf at all I just see the other one that look a bit the same as the isf.
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I've never seen an IS-F either, MaseratiBoy. I'm convinced that they either don't really exist or people who would normally get BMW M5's (etc) aren't willing to take a leap of faith. I do see quite a few Lexus IS' going down the motorway but you'd have to be eagle eyed to notice if they are an IS-F.
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Lexus didn't work anything out. Technology to harvest energy from vibrations has been around for at least 4 or 5 years, a bunch of boffins at Southampton Uni and an R&D center in Belgium came up with it independently of each other. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful concept and I hope the technology will mature quickly so we can all benefit from it.
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I have seen a IS-F in two places - The London Motor Show and just outside a Toyota/Lexus dealer. Odd, really, because they're not awful cars. Maybe it's suffered because it was released just when it was OK to own an M3 again. Or because Lexus customers lean towards hybrids, but I don't know for sure.
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@Lunchi - a solid state device providing power for remote sensors on ships if I remember correctly?? I do know the outputs are tiny at the moment but hopefully they'll improve. Cheers
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Um so question... if you can power things from vibrations, and certain devices use power to vibrate like say a... electric shaver... then have Lexus discovered an unlimited power source?
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Theoretically, Scout, yes. Nifty isn't it?
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Heres an idea, if you put that funny energybridgeshakingorwhateverdevice onto every bridge in the world then we might be able to get rid of every single G-WIZ on earth. Now that's a good idea
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Here's an even better idea, Twister: how about centralising, or miniaturising the technology so that it can fit into every car? The vibrations could work off the friction between the car and the road and propell the car along and obviously the faster you go, the more vibrations there are and therefore more energy. Then adjust it accordingly for trucks, ships and planes. Sorted! It'd never happen, of course, because having a constantly renewable source of energy centralised in a car's engine would render petrol useless and so the oil companies would lose billions.
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There was a guy in the UK lobbying parliament to take up his idea of piezo electronic strips in the road being used to supplement the power requirements of streetlights and road signs. They ignored him, and now other countries are doing it. Same with just about any new recycling or generating technology. For a government that rattles on about the need to look for alternative fuel sources they appear to have a terrible case of cranial-colonic syndrome..
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Personally Kuang I think the British government like to talk about things but never take the time to actually do anything. I think they're scared to be innovators, or at the very least take a gamble with innovation in case the whole world watches on and laughs (like they will do in 2012 for the Olympics) as we knacker it up. The government like statistics, and they like the idea of being able to give these statistics to the planet, which leaves the rest of the planet baffled since the numbers are completely meaningless to them and at best a safety net to keep the British public warm and cuddled up when we go to sleep at night. It's those same non-existent figures that got us into the mess we're in now with the economy.
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Personally Kuang I think the British government like to talk about things but never take the time to actually do anything. I think they're scared to be innovators, or at the very least take a gamble with innovation in case the whole world watches on and laughs (like they will do in 2012 for the Olympics) as we knacker it up. The government like statistics, and they like the idea of being able to give these statistics to the planet, which leaves the rest of the planet baffled since the numbers are completely meaningless to them and at best a safety net to keep the British public warm and cuddled up when we go to sleep at night. It's those same non-existent figures that got us into the mess we're in now with the economy.
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@ Scout-V & The_Monk; there's a nasty wee problem called the Second Law of Thermodynamics - means you can't break-even on something like this. The energy has to come from somewhere in the first place. All this tech does is scavange energy that would otherwise be lost. Also worth noticing that efficiencies are VERY low. Cheers.
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Thank you luckyman. And to the people who said "put it in cars". They've already put a kinetic energy to electrical energy system in cars. They're called hybrids! The engine and the brakes are both used to charge the battery in most hybrid cars. F1 has the KERS system too, which is either kinetic to electrical potential to kinetic, or kinetic to potential to kinetic to recover the energy that would typically be wasted.
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Luckyman, the second law of thermodynamics is essentially the theory that things will get worse over time if they are left by themselves -- have you ever heard of engineers, or better yet, Lexus garages and the mystical inhabitants of this strange, dark underworld called mechanics? I know it might seem like a foreign word but taking a car for a 'service' isn't unheard of. The only inefficiency that might actually come out of something like a car powered by vibrations is when vibrations actually stop, and I can't really see this occuring -- at least not if you're driving through Staffordshire.
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@luckyman: I think the majority of good practice in energy generation over the next few years is going to be in tapping small and diverse inefficiencies to harvest what would otherwise be wasted - you can't understate how important that could be. Just think of the noise, heat and vibration given off by an engine; that's your fuel being burned to create those side effects, and so grabbing any amount back for other uses is a benefit, more so if the technology needed is cheap and unobtrusive. There's potential for lots of extra energy grabs in a car - we already have regenerative braking - such as solar panels, piezo-based generation through suspension travel, or even via magneto-rheological shocks working as generators when in normal mode. We're already quite at home with turbos, so considering the rest shouldn't prove too much of a brain drain :)
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i dont like lexus but i must congratulate the genius(S) who thought of this what a very good idea
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@The_Monk - hmm how about I give you my full name? That would be: luckyman Dip(IES)BSc(Hons)CertMgmt(Open)CertEngSysEnv MCMI GradEI. Do you know, funnily enough, I've heard of these folk called engineers? @Kuang - the more scavenging the better, but the main issue with vibrations is that they really shouldn't be there in the first place ...
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@Kuang - apologies I'd better clarify that. Vibration is going to be a part of any car design, especially when negotiating UK roads. The trick is to minimise it so that the NVH figures aren't too high. The other systems you mention are all good. Cheers.
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uzzy94 commented on this article
03 November 2009
yeahh dats a really gud idea, yayyyyy!!1 first comment!!!!! lol by da way wens da new topgear series cumin out??
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