People pulling into hotels or stopping for some fast food will soon be creating energy without doing anything special.
New Energy Technologies will be testing out its roadway energy harvesting systems at a Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., a Holiday Inn Express in Baltimore and a Burger King in Hillside, New Jersey.
The systems consist of strips laid on the road that cars push down on as they roll over them. They're designed to absorb energy in places where vehicles are already slowing down, avoiding any arguments that the system would cause vehicles to expend more energy to get over - costing the drivers more in fuel - while giving free energy to businesses.
That's a charge that came up after Sainsbury's, a U.K. retail chain, installed kinetic plates at its Gloucester store that move as cars drive over them, creating kinetic energy to power a generator that funnels energy to the store's check outs (a story we've dubbed the "sneaky speed bumps" phenomenon).
While the systems that New Energy is testing out are are designed for cars, vans and light trucks, New Energy has also developed a system to harness the energy from heavy trucks for use at truck stops, weigh scales, commercial ports and shipping sites - all places that plenty of trucks stop at regularly.
New Energy envisions eventually seeing its systems in more high traffic areas like toll booths, intersections, rest areas and border crossings. The systems are appealing since they don't require any behavioral changes. Drivers just keep going through the drive-thru or toll booth or port without doing anything extra. That also makes it more attractive for ramping up on larger scales. But for now we'll see how much energy they can get from a couple hotels and a burger joint.