Tiny sensors in roads generate electricity from the vibrations of cars driving on the road. This piezoelectric technology is already being used in Israel, Italy and Japan and will now be piloted in California.
The sensors, as tiny as watch batteries, could be placed under the roads and wired together. A one-and-a-half mile stretch of two-lane highway could generate enough electricity to power 1,000 homes.
The program is soliciting proposals right now to fund the projects. The plan would be to install the new sensors in roads already slated for re-pavement.
(more on the pilot programs for piezoelectric technology in California roads...)
