Drive-through energy

The bad news: the Whopper is still bad for you. The good news? All that kinetic energy going to waste when you pull your car through the drive-thru window will be put to good use.

At least, it will be at a Burger King in New Jersey. They’re experimenting with speed bumps that could actually harness enough energy to power half a million homes. Company officials say the energy collected could be routed right into the power grid.

Using a regenerative technology similar to that used in hybrid cars, metal plates in speed bumps are pushed down as a car drives over them. The movement of these plates can create kinetic energy, which translates to as much as 30 kilowatts per hour.

While this doesn’t exactly offset the emissions from either the cars or cows involved, it’s a step in the right experimental direction. The company who developed this prototype, New Energy Technologies, is eager to apply it to busy intersections, toll booths, and any number of other places that cars drive.

In the UK, tests are already underway with similar technology in supermarket parking lots and residential speed bumps. The collected energy is used to power nearby traffic and street lights, but could also be stored or fed into the local power grid.

Some have criticized Burger King for attempting to “greenwash” an unhealthy and ecologically unfriendly habit.  But if people are driving their cars for a quick burger anyway, generating electricity from that is still bonus. Provided, of course, you don’t look the gift cow in the mouth.

Solving the infrastructure problem

The future is electric. Or at least many believe it is minus the one glaring problem facing electric vehicles: infrastructure.

More and more companies are building electric cars. Nissan has released a preview of their as-yet unnamed model, one based on their Versa in appearance. But on the inside, it’s all about the battery, baby.

Nissan also has electric models of their Cube. While neither model is available to consumers just yet, product planner Mark Perry says “This is not a test or demonstration…we’re ready for mass production.” They plan on having the car available in 2012. Hopefully, in that three-year gap, the infrastructure needed will be built. It would be a shame to have electric cars driving around with nowhere to plug them in, or for no one to buy them because there is no infrastructure.

Luckily, some universities are looking for solutions.

In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology brought in a UK company to install 150 Elektrobay charging stations in September. All Elektromotive’s charging bays are allocated to the 150 EV car fleet for staff and students to use around the campus. A feasibility test, so to speak, on a small scale.

Closer to home, electrical engineers at the University of Calgary are looking at plug-in hybrids to determine the feasibility of storing electricity directly from the power grid. They hope to develop a smart-charging system that would specifically make use of energy generated from wind power.

Nissan wants to help too; and why wouldn’t they? The Renault-Nissan Alliance is signing deals left and right to set up charging networks all over the world. Because they’re smart enough to know convenience is key to keeping customers happy.

Decentralized power

Soon you might be borrowing a cup of energy from your neighbour instead of a cup of sugar.

Decentralized energy is an alternate to conventional grid energy where consumers make their own power and then trade, sell or share surpluses with neighbours. The problem is that nobody has any money. Alternative energy sources save money in the long run but are expensive to implement. The old ‘spend-money-to-save-money’ pitch may be a difficult one to make to cash-strapped consumers in the United States.  

So it’s up to the government to intervene, since the payoff could mean nearly a limitless source of energy. President Obama maintains that those countries that switch to renewable resources such as solar energy will become world leaders. 

The U.S. invented solar technology but has not been producing it at the same rates as countries like Japan and Germany. Currently, the US doesn’t even have one tenth of one percent of electricity or heating from solar. Using existing technology, the U.S. could replace one percent of its total energy consumption with solar energy each year.

In Alberta, micro-generation legislation was passed in January 2009, meaning that consumers are now able to sell their residential surpluses to the provincial grid. 

And new projects, like the Calgary District Energy Project are looking at providing self-sufficient heating and power networks. A $1-billion Shepard power station project would have the capacity to heat about one-third of Calgary’s 30 million square feet of office space.

Now that’s the type of Power Play that Canadians can get behind.

Wanted: super batteries – mere mortals need not apply

Solar and wind power are fantastic energy alternatives to non-renewable fossil fuels. But as everyone knows, they only work when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. So far, wind and solar count for only 3 percent of the energy needs in the United States. But with plans to increase wind power supplies to 25 percent by 2025, a reliable and stable back-up is essential.

Enter Plan B. Plan Battery, that is.

A small wind farm in Luverne, Minnesota is leading the charge with the nation’s first wind-to-battery setup. It uses the wind to charge batteries that in turn release the wind power onto the grid.

These aren’t your typical double-A batteries. They are super-batteries the size a double-decker bus, complete with mask, cape and superpowers. Though they can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, they certainly can power them.

A Super Battery can soak up 7.2 megawatt hours of power with help from his trusty sidekicks: Wind Turbines. The superhero team belongs to MinWind, a Minnesota wind-power developer.

Overseeing the entire super battery project is Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based utility, which bought the batteries from NGK Insulators, a Japanese battery supplier. The reason? A year ago, their wind capacity was at 2,700 megawatts compared with about 3,000 megawatts today, an amount it hopes to double by 2020.

Research is being done to see how much power the sodium-sulfur battery system can absorb, how quickly, at what cost – and then deliver it to the grid.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane. No – it’s Super-battery!

Image: XCel Energy