The Winds of Change are Blowing—Smart Turbine Harness Energy From Passing Vehicles
Well, they certainly are in Istanbul, Turkey where the city is experimenting with wind turbines that generate power from passing traffic. This innovation could be a breakthrough in the generation of clean energy, albeit from a slightly dirty source.
Currently, horizontal wind turbines, you know the windmill types, are the industry standard for generating electricity from wind. But they need pretty high wind speeds to operate and, frankly, stick one of those into a city and there may be a bit of a problem. Not so for vertical wind harvesters or ENLILs, as they are known.
Created by the clever fellows at the Istanbul Technical University, who teamed up with tech start-up Deveciteh, the roadside installable mechanism can harness wind at much lower speeds and, as they are small, can be placed in urban environments without the threat of decapitation. For most of us, the breeze from a passing car may not seem like much but the ENLIL’s tall unobtrusive blades can create about 1kW of energy an hour from it. Oh and hey, stick a solar panel on top and you can get some solar power for free as well. This could go a long way to stopping global warming.
Each and every turbine fitted on the streets coupled with a solar panel can power about two households per day. This may not seem like a lot, but they are affordable enough for the authorities to start planning to place them along all of the major roads in the sprawling city.
Most modern turbines are expected to last for about twenty years, assuming there is no collision damage. ENLIL is expected to exceed this due to its simple and durable design. The company also hopes that the very simplicity of the design and assembly process will lead to a growing home retrofit market in the future.
The inspiration behind the ENLIL came from Karem Deveci who began working on the project in his bedroom when he was a civil engineering student and was inspired by his observations of the wind effect of a train as he went to and from his studies.
Wind energy is growing rapidly in Turkey where a full 8% of the power used is from that source. There are further plans for the development of this sector: an offshore wind farm to be built with Danish input; and a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loan of €85 million to expand green energy.
Even though this project and technology are in the early stages of development, it’s kinda neat that generating electricity from the by-product of cars could power the future – a sort of perpetual energy machine really.
