Here’s a new way for your customers to help you turn green — get them to generate clean electricity for your operation. All they have to is drive by and slow down.

It’s already happening.

As vehicles come in a driveway or parking lot, they drive over what looks like a speed bump or a scale. As that metal plate moves under the weight of the car, its motion moves generators that create clean electricity. Bingo, your customers hand you a green charge of juice to offset your electric bill.

That’s the brain child of a couple of inventors on both sides of the Atlantic.

In America, it’s the MotionPower strip produced by New Energy Technologies, Inc., based in Burtonsville, MD.

The device captures a moving vehicle’s kinetic energy as it slows down to a stop. Normally that energy is lost as heat generated by the vehicle’s brakes. The MotionPower is essentially a “external regenerative brake” that helps a vehicle slow down and creates the electricity for the store owner.

Regenerative braking is a key feature of hybrid electric vehicles that recharges the battery every time you step on the brake pedal.

Take the idea out of a vehicle and it’s a perfect application for a fast-food drive through, the entrance to a hotel, or perhaps a toll booth on a highway. The MotionPower device is getting tests at:

• a New Jersey Burger King
• the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC, and
• the Holiday Inn Express in Baltimore.

In the U.K., supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is working with a similar device — kinetic road plates — in its car parks. These are developed by Highway Energy Systems. Sainsbury expects to generate 30 kW per hour from the energy and weight of cars parked over the store. That’s enough to power each store’s checkout counters.

By comparison, the Burger King expects to use the customer-generated electricity to power various appliances in the eatery. The manager of the test store says he’d like to install more MotionPower strips when they’re commercially ready next year.

Tags: clean electricity, Highway Energy Systems, MotionPower, New Energy Technology