Road Pavement Energy–Harvesting Device to Convert Vehicles’ Mechanical Energy into Electrical Energy

Abstract

With the growing need for alternative energy sources, research into energy-harvesting technologies has increased considerably in recent years. The particular case of energy harvesting on road pavements is a very recent area of research, with different technologies having been developed in recent years. However, none of them have presented high conversion efficiencies nor technical or economic viability. This paper deals with the technical study of existing road pavement energy–harvesting solutions using electromechanical systems to transmit energy from the device surface to an electrical generator and the development of a new mechanical system to implement on such devices. The main goal is to quantify the energy harvesting, transmission, and conversion efficiency of the new system and compare it with the existing systems. Conclusions about each system’s efficiency and the maximum theoretical efficiency of the proposed system are presented.