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Moving Trains = Energy to Harvest

The Virginia Tech Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety and the Railway Technologies Laboratory want to harness the energy created by moving trains and transform that energy into usable electricity. Watch this video to see how Mehdi Ahmadian's team successfully tested a railroad tie equipped with technology to do just that.

“For every wheel of the train that goes by, we are harvesting 15 to 20 watts of power,” said CVeSS Director Mehdi Ahmadian  . “If we have a long train with maybe 200 railcars, that’s 800 wheels, making 1.6 kilowatts. Once we have stored that energy, we are able to use it to make the tracks more intelligent by embedding sensors in them.”

Topics:
Electrification Energy Energy Harvesting Power

More From SAE Media Group

    Transcript

    00:00:01 The idea that we had a number of years ago was, what if we take one over the elements that the railroads use anyway, in this case, the cross tie that is part of the structure of the track. And what if we embed into that the required mechanical elements that will enable the small movement

    00:00:33 that happens to generate electricity. This movement is happening as a result of the wheel load pressing down on the track and moving it down slightly by as much as one-quarter of an inch or approximately one centimeter. We are harvesting approximately about ten watts of electrical power from every wheel set. So for every train

    00:01:14 I'm able to get about 4,000 watts or 4 kw of power. Once I store that energy in my bank of batteries, then I am able to retrieve that energy and use it for whatever the purpose may be.