Green Electricity From Cars

This week an Israeli firm Innowattech performed a successful trial of their alternative energy system that generates "green" electricity from vibration caused by passing cars. The system was installed on a 10 meter strip of asphalt on a highway and powered the street lights set up next to this strip. It used special piezoelectric generators embedded in the asphalt 2 inches below its top level. The generators were mounted with electronic cards that fed voltage into a storage system.

Piezoelectric effect in general is the generation of a voltage by certain solid dielectric materials when a mechanical stress is applied to them. It has been known for more then a century, and is widely used in piezoelectric transformers for high-voltage power supplies, various transducers, sensors, cigarette lighters, and other low-power applications. The Innowattech's system called IPEG™ is probably the first practical high-power application of piezoelectricity. According to the company, the installation of their system stretching one kilometer would produce 200 kW per hour on single traffic lane, or 1 megawatt on a four lane highway. Installation of the piezo-generators and electronic cards can be performed during paving of new roads or during the maintenance work. The "traffic energy" can be either supplied back to the drivers by powering the road lights or fed into the electric grid. A variation of IPEG™ can also produce power from pedestrian movement. Harvesting energy from the vibrations created by people walking on the floor is also being researched by East Japan Railway Company, who installed “Power-Generating Floor” in a Tokyo station.

Innowattech estimates the cost of energy harvesting from roads, railways and runways via IPEG™ to be 3 to 10 cents per kilowatt, which is comparable to the cost of renewable energies.

Cheap Small Generators

If you consider buying a cheap small electric generator for emergency purposes, now it's the right time to do it. A year from now you probably won't find a cheap portable generator for sale because of the new EPA exhaust emissions standards that will take effect in 2011. These new standards apply to all so-called Small Nonroad Spark-Ignition (SI) Engines and Equipment with engines up to 19 kW used in household and commercial applications, including lawn and garden equipment, utility vehicles, generators, and a variety of other construction, farm, and industrial equipment. The standards are intended to reduce hydrocarbon emissions from small SI engines by about 35%, and are similar to the requirements adopted previously by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Of course, as every government regulation, this one comes with a price tag. To comply, the manufacturers have to improve engine combustion and add catalysts. They will have to apply on an annual basis for the certification and pay a certification fee. The extra cost of course will be passed to us, the consumers.

Major domestic manufacturers of gensets such as Generac and Briggs & Stratton, are already CARB-compliant, so likely they will be EPA-certified as well. However their models cost typically twice as much as some cheap imports. Right now you can still buy a small non-CARB compliant portable genset made in China for about $100 per kW power. And if you worry about environment- emergency generators should not be an issue of our concern: maybe you would use them a few hours a year, or maybe you would never use them at all. Of course, portable generators are also used for non-emergency purposes such as on construction sites. However, as CARB's Fact Sheet admitted, small engines (which besides gensets include lawn mowers and a variety of other construction and garden equipment that is used more frequently) comprise only about one percent of California’s air pollution inventory! If EPA wanted to fight this 1% pollution, it could at least allow the non-compliant models to be sold with a label "for emergency use only". Could it be that EPA employees driving to and from their work for years while working on this project, caused a greater environmental impact that all portable emergency generators combined?

Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act and Mercury in Your Mouth

Although most of US electronic industry has converted to a ROHS-compliant manufacturing, up until now there was no a legal requirement in US to meet ROHS regulations except for the state of California. The electronic manufacturers switched to ROHS-compliant products primarily in order to sell them to Europe, Japan, and some other countries, and because many customers were requesting ROHS compliance. However, when a product is not shipped to the geographical areas where ROHS or similar regulations are enforced by a law, and the compliance is not requested by a customer, it is basically up to the manufacturer to choose the components and the soldering technology.

Now there is a possibility a ROHS compliance would soon become a federal law. A legislation have been recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that imposes restrictions on the use of lead, mercury and other materials in many types of electrical products and equipment.
The proposed legislation, designated H.R. 2420 and referred to as Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act (EDEE), would amend the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to provide national regulatory standards for the use of some potentially hazardous substances. According to the bill, ‘electroindustry products’ manufactured after July 1, 2010 must not contain lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and cadmium in the concentration levels that are consistent with EU's RoHS Directive.

The bill particularly states: "It is the purpose of this Act to enhance the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the people of the United States in the global marketplace".

Well, I wonder how for example mandating a lead-free solder technology that is known to have potential long-term reliability issues, whose implementation requires extra spending, and which is not driven by free market forces, would enhance our economic well-being?

I also wonder, how come for example mercury is not OK in electronics, but OK in your mouth? It is interesting that currently in the US and in most European countries there is no restriction on the use of dental mercury amalgam fillings. So far only Sweden, Denmark and Norway ban mercury use in dental fillings, while all members of EU restrict its use in electronics devices. Of course, mercury, lead and other toxic substances in electronic devices present a health threat only if you have a habit of chewing printed circuit boards. Contrary to this, mercury in your mouth presents a much more probable health issue. According to some studies, amalgam fillings leach mercury into the mouth and mercury vapor can be inhaled during the fillings removal, although FDA disputes the effects of this exposure.

The state of California is a bit more consistent with the toxic substances issue. It at least mandates the following notice: "Notice to Patients, Proposition 65: Warning on dental amalgams, used in many dental fillings, causes exposure to mercury, a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. Root canal treatments and restorations including fillings, crowns and bridges, use chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has studied the situation and approved for use all dental restorative materials. Consult your dentist to determine which materials are appropriate for your treatment. "

However, currently neither CA, or federal laws restrict mercury use in dental fillings. Apparently, for our lawmakers mercury is hazardous only in landfills but not in your mouth.