Harnessing of Electrical Energy Through Vehicular Air Drag on Highways For Lighting Load Applications

Renewable sources of energy are essential for light load applications and help conserve energy. One way of harnessing energy is through wind power. The force of wind is used to propel a turbine system which in turn generates energy in form of electricity. The idea of this study is to use the air drag produced from passing cars to drive a wind turbine and produce power to charge batteries that will be used for street lighting application. The concept of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine or VAWT will be studied in order to produce a hybrid turbine that will be suitable for the application. The performance of the turbine is determined using anemometer for wind speed, tachometer for rpm and multimeter for voltages and current. The results are tabulated and then evaluated using graphs and curves.