POWERAMP · Clean Energy Production through Roadway Surface Power Harvesting Systems for Increased Safety in the Transportation Sector

POWERAMP will design, manufacture, prototype, and validate through real world pilots energy harvesting speed bumps that capture energy from vehicles that pass over the ramps. Emplaced in areas where speed must be controlled, safety must be increased, or where vehicles must come to a stop, such systems leverage gravity and the kinetic energy of thousands of kilograms moving at high rates of speed to produce energy. Breaking technological barriers associated with patent protected background, POWERAMP will enable the associated SMEs to obtain systems that produce 35kW of continuous power in moderate traffic conditions. This is the equivalent of 200m2 of solar panels or one moderate sized windmill for a footprint of approximately the size of a car and at a fraction of the cost. As such, POWERAMP will provide an enabling technology for Europe to meet its energy and emission reduction goals. POWERAMP will also provide a tool to increase the safety of pedestrians at crossing areas and construction workers at worksites through controlled speed, powered signs, and safety lighting. Europe currently has approximately 8000 pedestrian fatalities on its roadways each year. Similar to wind, solar, or hydro, POWERAMP will pioneer a new sector of clean energy production - roadway energy harvesting, and will change how we think about roads and how they are integrated into the built environment. A wave of new applications will become possible and an entire job sector will be created.