clipped from: www.theregister.co.uk An American architect has come up with a scheme, now picked up on Slashdot, to harvest the wind generated by fast-moving motor vehicles and use it to power a light-rail network running alongside the highway.
The idea is that sections of dividing barriers would be replaced by rows of Darius turbines, which would whirl in the wakes of the cars and trucks speeding along on either side and generate loads of electricity. Mark Oberholzer, a greenly-positioned Houston architect, had originally proposed no more than this, back in 2006. This year, however, he has refined his ideas.
"The technical problems of tying into the grid and managing the flow made me think of putting the power to a different use. I'm pretty excited about integrating a subway or light-rail train right where the barrier is. I love the idea of siphoning off electricity generated by private transportation to run public transportation."