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With
the invention of a new paving technology, clean energy could be extracted from
traffic. Italian engineers also promise an offset of CO2 emissions and better
safety on roads.
Cutting
edge technology called Lybra is a tire-like rubber paving, which is designed to
convert the kinetic energy produced by vehicles into electric energy. It has
been developed by an Italian start-up “Underground
Power”, founded in February 2011.
It
is a device 10 cm in height, 3 meters wide and 1 meter long. As scientists
suggest, Lybra can be installed in various places of deceleration – at traffic
lights, pedestrian crossings, roundabouts and parking lots.
“What
we propose is an innovative and smart system to recover and absorb energy from
cars by slowing them down, increasing road safety and producing green energy by
using energy that the car would disperse anyway through its brakes,”
the company’s CEO Andrea Pirisi told Euronews TV.
Developed
in cooperation with the Polytechnic University of Milan, Lybra operates on the
principle that a braking car dissipates kinetic energy. The edge-cutting
technology, in its turn, is able to collect, convert this energy into
electricity and pass it on to the electricity grid. In addition to improving
road safety, the device upgrades and promotes sustainability of road traffic.
A
test strip was set up in Milan this summer and the company's technical
director, Silvio Doni, says the "system
is completely safe even in the most critical conditions," as
it is made of materials that can withstand up to 60 tons of load.
According to the team of
engineers, a chain of 10 devices located at a rather busy roundabout would be
able to produce 100 thousand kWh per year. Just to compare, the same quantity
of energy is produced by 19 tons of oil – that’s enough to meet the annual
power needs of about 40 families.
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