We have already seen some huge advancements in the electric car industry, but it seems as though one company wants to go even further in their quest for green fuel. The Energy Harvester is a new piece of kit that could allow your tires to generate energy all on their own.
Falken Tyres
The brains behind this piece of clever tech is the parent company of Falken Tyres, Sumitomo Rubber, and Professor Hiroshi Tani from Kansai University. Together, they have produced The Energy Harvester for tires and it seems like one of those pieces of technology that seems to have been obvious now we have seen it – we just don’t know why it wasn’t invented sooner!
How It Works
This small device can be housed in a tire and it works by converting the static electricity from a rotating wheel into power. Sounds simple enough, right? There are two layers of rubber, each covered in an electrode, plus negatively and positively charged films. As the tire deforms during its rotations, static electricity is then harnessed and turned into usable power. That sounds a little less simple, but we think we’ve got it!
A Long Way To Go
As it stands, the Energy Harvester has quite a long way to go before it’ll be used to power entire vehicles. At the moment, it can only harness enough power to charge up small things like tire pressure sensors. However, that doesn’t mean that the geniuses behind this piece of technology are thinking small. With a lot more research, there’s no limit to the possibilities of this tech.
We may have to wait a while to see exactly what the Energy Harvester can do, but it could pave the way for a lot more exciting things in the future. Only time will tell!