Dr. AR. Tavakolpour-Saleh, one of the academic members at Shiraz University of Technology, and his graduate student, Mr. H. Jokar, have patented a new device for electrical energy harvesting from waste energy of vehicles motion on speed breakers of streets. Nowadays, in our country, numerous vehicles are travelling on the streets which consume a huge amount of fuel. It is important to note that a significant amount of fuel chemical energy is dissipated. In this invention, the idea of energy recovery from the energy losses is intended. In this approach, flexible speed bumps are mounted on roads at suitable locations so as to absorb the kinetic energy of passing vehicles and convert it into electrical form. It is demonstrated that the amount of electrical energy produced by this technique is significant, especially at the heavy traffic roads. The harvested electrical energy can be further used for street lighting at night or other consumptions as well. In addition to the generation of electrical energy, this system acts as speed bumper, which is another advantage of the proposed idea. Although some similar products are commercialized by two international companies, the mechanism in the proposed concept is totally different from those mentioned products.
