TED – Ideas Worth Spreading

Horizontal Wind Turbines: Move With Wind Power

An Arizona State University student has proposed a very novel way of re-capturing some of the energy expended by vehicles moving at high speeds on our nations highways. We all know how much air turbulence is generated by vehicles moving at speed particularly trucks.

The proposal would involve mounting horizontal wind turbines above the roadway that would be driven by the moving air generated by the passing traffic. The electricity generated by spinning these turbines could be fed back into the grid. Joe’s analysis indicates that based on vehicle speeds of 70 mph each turbine could produce 9,600kWh per year.