This is an interesting and innovative concept. The issues with just about anything in public rights-of-way are capital cost, maintenance cost, reliability, and potential impact to other structures and facilities within the r.o.w. This technology would integrate energy generation, something DOT's are not in the business of doing, with transportation. Not only that, it would insert a new and relatively unproven element into the pavement subgrade and this would have some consequence in the design and performance of the pavement. It may also influence constructability and duration of construction, as well as potential connection issues. Issues like, how would the system impact pavement repair and maintenance, power purchase agreements, collection and transmission requirements, power conditioning, and substation infrastructure, etc. would have to be worked out to make this a technology that can be incorporated in roadway construction. There would have to be bases for design, project viability assessment, etc. I would think a full scale demonstration project (something like Virginia's Smart Road) would need to be completed to show how this technology could be constructed and function before it could be accepted for broader use. Despite the potential for such technology, I would think a considerable amount of work would have to be done to gain DOT acceptance.
------------------------------
Michael Byle P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE
Tetra Tech Inc.,
Langhorne PA
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-05-2017 15:45
From: Samer Dessouky
Subject: Piezoelectric transducers
Hello. Our group at Univ. of Texas at San Antonio has come up with a prototype to harvest mechanical energy from roadways and convert it into electric power using Piezoelectric transducers. I think this will be a great approach for State DOT to make use of current assets for revenue making. Using this technology under pavement can provide power for sensors and low-watt LED for lighting. Also, with minimum use of right of way it could be an alternative technology to solar panels along roadway as commonly used in Europe. I am curious if this would be of an interest to State DOT or FHWA especially as we enter the V2V and V2I arena? Any thoughts?
------------------------------
Samer Dessouky Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE
Associate Professor
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio TX
------------------------------