Researchers suggest piezoelectric method to generate power

Piezoelectric material produces electricity as it comes under pressure of vehicles or people and could be mixed with the road construction material to ensure power generation from roads.

Mandi: Researchers of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi have proposed generation of electricity through piezoelectric technique, saying it could prove useful for an energy-hungry country like India

Piezoelectric material produces electricity as it comes under pressure of vehicles or people and could be mixed with the road construction material to ensure power generation from roads.

The result of the IIT, Mandi research has been published in Engineering Reports, an international open-access journal that welcomes scientifically and technically valid articles from all areas of engineering and computer science.

Dr Rajiv Kumar, who co-authored the report with a research scholar of North Korea, said electricity would be generated as vehicles run on the road.

He said piezoelectric material produces electricity as it comes under the weight of vehicles or people. The power generated by the technology could be used for signals and street lights.

He, however, said that the new technology does not produce much of power so it has its own limitations at the moment.

The researcher also said that technology is promising and could be improved in the due course of time. They have suggested various ways to improve the overall technology to make it useful.