Smart infrastructure to harvest energy from roads

News

Roads that generate electricity from passing cars and lorries are part of a UK project aiming to introduce so-called smart infrastructure onto local road networks.

The ‘SMART Connected Community: Live Labs’ project will focus on Aylesbury with input from researchers from Lancaster University’s Department of Engineering.

Led by Buckinghamshire County Council, the project has received £4.5m in grant funding from the SMART Places Live Labs Programme and is one of eight Live Labs projects. The £23m programme, funded by the Department for Transport, is led by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT).

The Live Labs project will test technological advances encompassing wireless communication sensors, smart materials, and energy generation and storage.

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Researchers from Lancaster University’s Department of Engineering will design, fabricate and test smart roads that generate power using piezoelectricity and hydromechanical dynamics from passing cars, trucks and buses.

The electricity harvested by the ‘smart’ roads will be stored by roadside batteries to power street lamps, road signs, air pollution monitors, plus sensors that detect when potholes are forming.

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