Wind Turbines On Highways - A Viable Power Generation System? Sungjea Cho Collingwood School Floor Location: S203E

Most people are already aware that the world is in need of a new energy source due to the continuing depletion of many oil and fossil fuels. And so, the purpose of this project was to create and experiment an innovative way of acquiring energy. I predicted that if wind created by high-speed automobiles could somehow be harvested, it can serve as an efficient energy source powerful enough to possibly stabilize the energy crisis at hand. Since my energy source was entirely dependent on wind, it was only logical to build and design wind-turbines that could turn the wind-energy created by cars into usable electric current. At first, I started with two main designs of a wind-turbine, both of which were vertical-axis turbines. I did a couple of tests to determine which the best design was, and with the better-proven design, I created a final-turbine that was more sturdy and faster in terms of rpm. Experiments with the final-turbine in a controlled setting showed that, in general, the amount of electricity increased as (1) the speed of the vehicle increased; (2) the distance from the turbine to the road decreased; (3) the number of moving vehicles (vehicles were 5m-10m apart) increased ; and (4) the mass of the vehicle increased. Statistical calculations were done (example=the percentage of the turbine generating a certain amount of current in relation to the car’s speed, mass...), as well as other calculations (for example= the power created if there were 2, 3, 4 wind turbines.....). The results showed that a single turbine only generated, on an average, about 2.5 W. Although I would have liked to see a lot more power generated, I believe that further improvements can make the wind turbines a viable power generation system in the future.