Lighting Villages with Speed Bumps

There is always energy deficit in this world. So, there is an ongoing pursuit of finding new ways to generate energy. Many other countries, especially India is affected the most by this acute deficit of energy. Even though the city people have to hardly face this problem, but majority of the villages and remote areas have to face this problem. There are many reasons to why do villages and remote areas don’t have access to electricity. Some of them are:

1. Their location is very remote, therefore difficult to supply electricity. Also, a lot electricity is lost during its transportation over long distances.
2. Many village panchayats (village government) cannot afford the infrastructure required for electricity.
3. Due to extreme poverty villagers cannot afford electricity.

This acute shortage of electricity was the primary motto behind this project. There is copiousness of solutions to this incisive problem. To address this problem i have come up with a system which uses one of those things that we see everyday. Millions of cars, trucks and other vehicles go over a speed breaker every-day. Their increase in weight because of the rise of the speed breaker is just wasted. Speed Bumps were only made to serve the solitary function of reducing the speed of a vehicle drastically. But now, small villages ad joint to a highway are going to be lit up with these ordinary speed bumps. While serving the objective of easy electricity production we also need an eco-friendly system for the production of electricity which would be the repugnant of the present thermal electricity production systems in India. Major proportion of electricity production is done by the thermal process which ejects unthinkable amounts of pollutants in the air. The speed bump system is eco-friendly and doesn’t release any kind of pollutants. After studying the dynamo, I had the idea of using a speed bump to 'supply' the required motion for the dynamo to create electricity.

The idea behind the project is extremely simple. The initial design had a crankshaft, gears and a lot of other complicated parts. The most basic problem that we had to address during this project was to change the type of motion. The 'up and down' motion created by vehicles going over the bump to the circular motion used in the dynamo. I addressed this problem by putting a hinge which would change the motion. Of course, this change could have been done by using a system of gears, put my aim was to keep it simple . This mechanism was the best I had during the time.

The parts used in this device are:

1) Surface plate

2) Spring with appropriate thickness

3) Simple scooter dynamo

4) Hinge ( connects the rod to the dynamo)

5) Attaching rod and a hollow rod for support

6) Electric invertor

When a vehicle goes over this bump, its weight (gravitational force) presses down on the spring as well as the rod which connects the surface plate to the hinge, which in turn rotates the dynamo half circle. This half circle creates some amount of electricity. Next, when the vehicle moves off the bump, the potential energy stored in the spring is released, this in turn ‘pulls up’ the rod attached to the dynamo, hence completing the circle. This movement produces some more amount of electricity. This electricity is then transferred to an electric invertor for storage.

A problem arises when heavy vehicles would pass over this device, which is initially meant for cars and other light weighted vehicles. This problem can be addressed by increasing the thickness of the spring and also attaching an additional dynamo. The idea would be the same, but with thicker springs, thicker rods, two dynamos and an additional and thicker spring in the centre for additional support. The new device would look like this.

This device can be placed under any speed breaker, but is preferred to be placed on a speed breaker which is on a highway (near a toll booth). Highway is preferred because lanes assigned to vehicles according to their size and weights are followed. If a heavy weighted vehicle goes over the device meant for light weighted vehicles, then the device could be damaged. And if a light weighted vehicle goes over a device for heavy weighted vehicles, then the required downward pressure wouldn’t be created, hence the dynamo wouldn’t rotate. Hence the place where lanes are followed according to size, which is a highway, is the best for this project. Also, many small villages are located near highways. Frequency of cars going over the bump is also continuous, therefore continuous production of electricity would be done.