Power to the masses

 

Does any one know who else might be interested in publishing this idea,
I have sent it to the PM's office but it will probably get buried there
so if you can giveme some names emails etc I would be very interested to
send it on and see what reactions I get.

Thanks all

Sniper8052

Message to PM:

Whilst driving on holiday and using the Motorway and A road systems it
occured to me that the same infrastructure which is being used to light
the roads could also be used to generate power.

By fixing compact wind turbines to the tops or sides of suitable lamp
standards a large amount of power could easily and cheaply be generated.
  Such turbines are already used to provide alternative domestic power
supplies and are readily available.

The advantages that I see with this approach are:

1) The basic support is already available and in place.
2) The same wiring can be used to transmit the power into the national
grid as is used to power the light when in use.
3) The turbine units are simple to install and replace.
4) There would be very little if any opposition as the land is:
a)Already owned by the government.
b)Already being used.
c)Any noise would be very minimal and would more likely be masked by
traffic - at night the turbines could be feathered as they would not be
generating power.
5)Cost - Using existing land and structures the only outlay would be on
the support fixing, turbine and switching.
6)The technology is availabe now.
7)A recent study showed that micro-generation has the capability of
producing more power, more efficiently, more cheaply and in a more
environmentally friendly way than any other source.

Clearly there will be issues which I am not qualified to address here
but this idea has, I feel, very much to recommend it above those
approaches being pursued at present.

 



Interesting idea and application for a small mass-produced savonius
system, especially in an area with regular winds and tall lightpoles.
It could be a bolt-on replacement for the entire light head assy.  I
don't think large amounts of power could be consistent enough to be
cost-effectively added to the grid, but there is no reason why at
least some lamp poles couldn't be energy sufficient.  There are areas
of the U.S. where roadway lamps are kept lit all day to discourage
theft of the feeder wiring.  Larger commercial towers in the median
buffer strip would seem to make sense as well, but could raise
interesting havoc with radio and cell-phone reception unless non-metal
blades were used.

 



People steal the street light wiring?  That is new one on me.


They would be used as cell phone towers too.

 



Yep.  One location that was brought to my attention was Miami along
the Dolphin and other expressways.  IIRC, a few years back one of the
idjuts that did this got turned into a pop tart while scrounging for
"scrap metal" wire to sell for drug money.

 



Why go this route when we have untold sites on streams rivers even from
water dams that are not used for generation and therefore go to waste, these
days low maintenance compact units could be placed anywhere and fed into the
nearest power system.
My conclusion is that we are not serious about saving the planet if we were
these projects would be on going using no  extra carbon fuels in the long
term and would certainly pay for themselves in a short period.