Traffic energy recovery systems promises free electricity
Drivers waste a lot of time in traffic, and also energy.
Every time they come to a stop, the force exerted by their brakes generates tremendous amounts of heat energy that simply vanishes into thin air.
Hybrids and electric cars try to recapture some of this in the form of electricity by using their motors as generators as they slow down, but these account for less than 5 percent of vehicles sold each year, and the process isn’t 100 percent efficient. A Chicago company called New Energy Innovations is looking to harvest some of that lost energy with its Traffic Powered Renewable Energy System, or TPRES.
