Inspiration
Renewable energy is the way we can fulfill the world power demand. We are in a age where the electric vehicles (EV) is possible and we are certainly moving in good direction. Though we are in this age of electic vehicles; we still the old infrastructure in place which we can not completely change to something new. We though this is to be interesting area of research and we have our successful findings. We chose the wind as our renwable energy source because it can cleanest form of renewable energy source and there could be a lot of research in this field.
We thought using wind turbines in different loactions along the moving vehicles. With efficient design we need very little modification to the current infrastructure but we will using wind energy otherwise wasted by moving cars. Our design includes placecments of the turbine between the railway tracks, along the walls of the subway tunnels, and at entrance or exit of the subway tunnel. This placement is efficient because we are not adding any drag by doing this. There is another design to put the turbine on moving vehicle but that design is not efficient the the one suggested.
What it does
The wind turbines place under the railway tracks can be used to generate energy which can light up to 2 houses with average monthly power usage of aroung 900 kWh. There are many factors which contribute to the power generation using wind energy.
Based on the following power generation from windmill formula
P = 1/2 ρ A v3
where
P = power (W)
ρ = density of air (kg/m3)
A = wind mill area perpendicular to the wind (m2)
v = wind velocity (m/s)
π = 3.14....
d = wind mill diameter (m)
Based on the above formula we know that the wind velocity is the critical component in terms of power generation.
As the moving trains/ vehicles move at such high speed they generate high wind speed with their movement. We can take advantage of this and design the turbine in such a way that we can use this high speed wind and convert it to power which can light up homes.
How we built it
We created an estimate of how much it will cost to create wind turbines and how much will power it could generate. We have following factors to consider for maximising the power generation
- Placement of the turbine
Placement of the turbine is critical in power generation using moving vehicles. There are different placement options of turbines like placing it along the railway tracks, at entry and exit of the subway tunnels, along the walls of the subway tunnels.
The most efficient design base on our research is placing the turbines along the railway tracks because it does not require a lot of changes to the current infrastructure and would generate more power gain.
Challenges we ran into
We encountered following challenges while building the design
- Design of the turbine
- Placement of the turbine for effiencent power generation
- Building prototype (its just 24 hrs hackathon :p)
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We performed cost benefit analysis of using turbines between tracks and we found that by using a turbine we can provide power which be light up 2 houses. Tuning the design and additional research could increase power generated using this.
What we learned
We can convert the energy by moving vehicles to have enough energy to fulfill the requirement of average household. Using efficient design is important in power generation.
What's next for Test
The next steps in this research would be to build prototype of efficient turbines, simulate and come up with results for different placements of turbines.
Built With
- cars
- subway-tunnels
- trains
- wind-turbines
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.