Feasibility of Highway Energy Harvesting Using a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

In countries where wind energy is less feasible, an energy harvesting device such as highway wind turbines can still be used for applications where less power is needed. This energy can be harvested using vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) placed on the sides of the highways to make use of the vehicles moving in both directions. This work presents an experimental study of using a three-bladed helical VAWT specially designed and manufactured for producing electrical energy from wind energy of moving cars on highways for lighting purposes such as the highway lights, traffic signals, and light guide lines. The wind speed of vehicles passing on a highway and wind power from the VAWT is measured at a number of anemometer heights on the highway sides. Results show that the VAWT prototype has produced up to 48-Watts of power from vehicles moving on the highway, which produce an average wind speed of 4.4 m/s. The wind turbine power curve is produced from the measured data and based on the best fit to the power curve, the efficiency of 34.6 percent is obtained, which is promising for further development of the work in commercial scale.