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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Prototype to undergo field tests at Burger King® drive-thru. (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=220351)

http://www.youtube.com/v/YHllhl0vuI4&hl=en&fs=1Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) - July 7, 2009

No idea what to make of this one... And even fewer details about output and costs?

Burtonsville, MD. -- New Energy Technologies, a next-generation alternative and renewable energy developer, today announced that engineers have completed development of the Company’s newest MotionPower™ prototype for generating electricity from the movement of cars and light trucks, and will now undertake active field tests of the device at a drive-thru located at a prominent Burger King® franchise in the New York metropolitan area.

“I’m proud to announce that our engineering team has successfully completed our newest, ultra-low profile, modular, second-generation MotionPower™ prototype. We’re eager to field test the device in a real world setting as part of our ongoing efforts to aggressively engineer, test, refine, and ultimately, commercially launch America’s first active roadway energy capture system of its kind,” explained Mr. Meetesh V. Patel, Esq., President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.

Engineers have designed and built New Energy’s latest MotionPower™ prototype as an ultra-low profile, modular device which can be easily customized to varying lengths based on site requirements. Once fully optimized for efficiency, engineers envision New Energy’s MotionPower™ device for cars and light trucks could be installed at high traffic locations such as toll booths, traffic intersections, rest areas, travel plazas, border crossings, neighborhoods with traffic calming zones, and drive-thrus similar to the Burger King® test site.

Last month, the Company announced plans to expand its product range with development of a brand new fluid-driven MotionPower™ energy harvester for heavy trucks and vehicles, complimenting the Company’s newly-prototyped mechanical MotionPower™ system for cars and light trucks.

New Energy also announced recently that the Company has filed nine new patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in order protect novel features of its MotionPower™ technology for generating electricity from the kinetic energy of moving vehicles.

New Energy engineers have developed MotionPower™ technologies, designed to generate ‘clean’ electricity by harnessing the kinetic energy of the estimated 250 million registered vehicles which drive more than 6 billion miles on America’s roadways every day.

Translation: It steals energy from your car and gives it to someone else. Sounds like a losing formula to me. (I predict terrible conversion losses.)

It could be non-terrible if it's in a location where everyone is slowing down already, like a toll booth. Better to generate power from the braking action than to just throw it away as heat. Of course, I'd rather use regen and recover the power for ME instead of someone else.

I'm in agreement with PaleMelanesian. It is only a good idea in places where one has to stop quickly. Toll booths, Border patrol stops, high speed roundabout entrances, and stretches of roads with extreme downhills are the only examples that I can think where they wouldn't bother me by eating up fuel. They also need to be in places where traffic won't affect the stopping point. Probably a horrible idea as a whole as I'm sure the cost to build such a device is very high.

Maybe it could be used in the place of some speed bumps. Especially those high speed ones that are basically a couple of small height strips.

As long as it's only in places where someone has to come to a stop...Of course it's stealing..similar to a fast food chain restaurant (mcdonalds I believe) had a man sent to jail for stealing oil for biodiesel...oil they were throwing away...it's my garbage...and I should be allowed to decide whether i want someone else to have it or not. It seems like that's the way corporations like to do it.

As long as it's only in places where someone has to come to a stop...Of course it's stealing..similar to a fast food chain restaurant (mcdonalds I believe) had a man sent to jail for stealing oil for biodiesel...oil they were throwing away...it's my garbage...and I should be allowed to decide whether i want someone else to have it or not. It seems like that's the way corporations like to do it.

I'd be interested in seeing any details on that story. Grease isn't something that gets thrown away, a company most likely collects and uses it, it's not garbage. There can be liability issues even if it is garbage that is stolen, I think that's the way lawyers like to do it.

I didn't RTFA, but I do remember reading about something similar. The idea was that there would be tiles you could step on and it would generate electricity. I think the plan was to put them in places with high pedestrian activity like times square.