Automobile Vibration to Generate Power for Bridge Lights

The Metropolitan Expressway Co., a company managing the construction, renovation, maintenance, and administration of expressways in and around Tokyo, announced on December 10, 2007, its project to generate electricity by converting energy created by the vibration resulting from automobiles driving on the Shuto (Metropolitan) Expressway.

In the project, the principles governing the way loudspeakers convert electrical energy into sound vibration energy are reversely applied to generate power. The concept was first implemented at the Goshiki-Zakura-Ohashi-Bridge over the Arakawa River on the Central Circular Route, one of the five famous bridges on the Shuto Expressway. Some of the lights on the bridge are lit by power generated by vibration.

The company is also running an "Eco-Road Campaign" targeting expressway users, which amount to 1.15 million automobiles and 2 million people a day.

http://www.shutoko.jp/english/

Posted: 2008/06/04 02:58:45 PM