42908 - Electrical Power Plant (EPP) Report

Abstract

Mankind is witnessing ever increasing need for energy with every passing year. Increasing population and increased dependence on automated systems have made the everyday lives of people more energy rather electricity dependent than any time in history. Fossil fuel reserves are slowly but permanently depleting forcing researchers and scientists look for alternative sources of energy. There is an emerging idea among researchers that energy conserved is energy generated. In a slightly different context, the kinetic energy or the mechanical energy due to impact of vehicles on speed breakers that is being wasted is considered to harvest electrical energy from it. This review of literature on this concept of electricity generation finds the mechanism of rack and pinion gears as most suitable to generate electricity from vehicular movement on speed breakers. Further, the works of Maurya et al., (2016) and Kolhe and Phandare (2017) are picked from the literature reviewed as the most suitable to base the proposed research project on electrical Energy Generation through speed breakers using rack and pinion gears.

Introduction 

Energy in the present times is the need of human living and existence. Modernization of mankind has necessitated the need for power and energy like never before. Rising population and rising automations of all the human facets of life require energy to run the systems built to support the civilized modern world (Kolhe & Bhandare 2017). There has been a significant dependence on energy from fossil fuels since its invention in the early 20th century. But the declining nature of the source of fossil fuels and increased pollution and damage they cause to the environment have necessitated the exploration of renewable sources of energy that are viable and that are self-sustaining without depleting the natural sources of energy and power (Bhagdikar, Gupta, Rana & Jegadeeshwaran 2014). Some of the alternative sources of energy that are already in use are hydropower generation, solar power generation and wind energy (Akand, Sultana, Islam & Dey 2015).  While these generate energy in large quantities, there are inventions and efforts to generate energy for appliances such as street lights to be self-sustaining through the use of mini solar panels so that such public appliances do not depend on the energy source of the state for their functioning (Ullah & Uz-Zaman 2016). One of the recent research focus is on the generation of electrical energy from the kinetic energy of the moving vehicles as they pass through certain points such as speed breakers in order to tap the enormous collective jerking pressure of the vehicles as they pass through speed breakers (Kebede, Khan, Singh & Singh 2018). This report explores this novel idea of power generation through the study of earlier experiments that have been conducted so far and the literature available on the subject. The report synthesizes the work done so far in this new field and makes recommendations to make such a system self-sustainable and commercially viable.