Wind turbine uses air generated by passing trucks to power roadside devices

French motorway operator Autoroutes Paris Rhin-Rhône (APPR) is testing the use of a vertical-axis wind turbine from Cita Production that can also harness the backdraft from passing trucks to increase output by some 20 per cent. The device, which has been tested successfully on the A6 motorway and will shortly go into full production, is designed to power roadside devices such as road signs, cameras, traffic monitoring sensors, and weather stations, where connection to the electricity grid would be too expen
May 15, 2012 Read time: 1 min
French motorway operator 5542 Autoroutes Paris Rhin-Rhône (APRR) is testing the use of a vertical-axis wind turbine from Cita Production that can also harness the backdraft from passing trucks to increase output by some 20 per cent. The device, which has been tested successfully on the A6 motorway and will shortly go into full production, is designed to power roadside devices such as road signs, cameras, traffic monitoring sensors, and weather stations, where connection to the electricity grid would be too expensive. APPR plans to deploy different models at up to five sites over the next few weeks.

Development of the vertical-axis wind turbine is a diversification for Cita Production, a specialist in boiler and mechanical welding for the nuclear industry.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Solar roads such as Colas’s Wattway could be the right way
    May 10, 2016
    Peter Harrop, chairman of independent research and consultancy IDTechEx, considers arguments in favour of solar roads. Nowadays a major trend is the move to off-grid clean energy created by “energy harvesting” to produce electricity where it is needed. This is more controllable and increasingly at lower cost than grid power or diesel gensets, cleaner and often less subject to interruption. It is taking new forms as revealed in the IDTechEx Research report, “High Power Energy Harvesting 2016-2026”.
    Read More
  • Solar roads such as Colas’s Wattway could be the right way
    April 26, 2016
    Peter Harrop, chairman of independent research and consultancy IDTechEx, considers arguments in favour of solar roads Nowadays a major trend is the move to off-grid clean energy created by “energy harvesting” to produce electricity where it is needed. This is more controllable and increasingly at lower cost than grid power or diesel gensets, cleaner, and often less subject to interruption. It is taking new forms as revealed in the IDTechEx Research report, “High Power Energy Harvesting 2016-2026”.
    Read More
  • Solar roads such as Colas’s Wattway could be the right way
    April 26, 2016
    Peter Harrop, chairman of independent research and consultancy IDTechEx, considers arguments in favour of solar roads Nowadays a major trend is the move to off-grid clean energy created by “energy harvesting” to produce electricity where it is needed. This is more controllable and increasingly at lower cost than grid power or diesel gensets, cleaner, and often less subject to interruption. It is taking new forms as revealed in the IDTechEx Research report, “High Power Energy Harvesting 2016-2026”.
    Read More
  • Biral RWS-20 weather sensor is made for the road
    March 22, 2017
    British meteorological instrument manufacturer Biral has launched what it says is “a very competitively priced” transportation road weather sensor (RWS-20). The sensor monitors visibility and obstruction to vision for road transport applications. It has been manufactured to allow easy integration with any road weather information system but it has been developed specifically for the harsh roadside environment. The RWS-20 is based upon Biral’s SWS range of visibility sensors, sharing many of its advanced tec
    Read More

Highlighted Content