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To Californians: The Hours You Spend in Traffic May Soon Be Used to Generate Electricity

Published on November 21, 2016

Aerial view of Highway 401 in Southern Ontario indicating the carrying capacity and potential energy possible for California piezoelectric transducers.
Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons and Clashmaker

LOS ANGELES, CA – If you’re a Los Angeles native, resident or even visitor, you will probably cringe at the combination of “LA” and “rush hour.” Sitting in LA traffic is an excruciatingly painful task, and not just because of the hours you spend putting pressure on your lower back. If your brakes aren’t screeching because of the driver who just cut you off, then you’re probably yelling about the bumper-to-bumper deadlock.

Truth be told, traffic is infuriating, exhausting and unproductive. However, the California Energy Commission (CEC) has announced its plans to change the latter of the three.

In a new pilot program, the CEC invested $2 million to study whether or not piezoelectric crystals, which would be installed under the asphalt, can be used to turn some of the most congested freeways in the country into a useful alternative resource.

Continue reading at The Huffington Post


Originally published by Huffington Post & Jennifer Schwab
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