California eyes unusual power source: its gridlocked roads (xpost from CA group)

[cprise]

4. Exactly. This looks like junk science/engineering.

Like the idea of putting small wind turbines next to busy highways. It saps the energy exerted by vehicle motors, reducing their MPGe. And without special classification and accounting it would considered theft.

So, something is off-kilter at the California Energy Commission...

"No longer is driving just the act of using energy. Maybe it's also part of the process of generating it," said Paul Bunje, a scientist at a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that funds technological developments and the former founding director of UCLA's Center for Climate Change Solutions.

...and UCLA, too. And the CA renewable energy fund will piss away $2million on trash because of physics illiteracy.

There is only one condition under which this kind of energy capture could sort-of be considered legitimately useful: On segments of roadway where drivers will almost certainly be trying to slow down, such as on the downslope of steep hills. As you recover potential energy from the descending car, the wear on its brake pads is actually reduced. But that's only "sort-of" because cars with regenerative braking would be getting robbed of useful energy.

Actually, the idea is bad enough that it should be classified alongside perpetual motion machines.