Generator Harnesses Energy Already in Use

[Hugo Chavez]

I was thinking regardless of how the car was powered, it is going down the road either way.  if it was to carry magnets on the bottom and the road became a grid of coils, you could harness the energy already being spent for other purposes (commuting), to in addition send electricity to a municipal grid.

you're forgetting or don't know about Lenz's law.  with your idea in place, it would be like driving around with a trailer of bricks slowing you down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prNXC1A26Ig

[glennsbluewater]

great point.  i'm wonder to what degree this would have an affect on consumer gas mileage.  i do know that the majority of energy at highway speed is used displacing air.  if it was a relatively small affect on overall gas mileage, the benefits might outweigh the cost.

don't give up on the idea though.  how cool would it be if pollution generating cars on the road were harnessed to produce a near carbon neutral form of energy.  there could be a net gain to the consumer and more importantly a dramatic benefit for the environment. 

who knows, cars fitted with magnets could possible be awarded a type of fuel tax break or discount for the energy they produce by fuel price discounts at the pumps.  or some other type of direct benefit to the driver.  tracking the amount of energy produced by a specific car would be as easy as marking times for marathon runners, but that may boarder on a bit of big brother tracking.

[Hugo Chavez]

it's actually a very bad idea.  You're asking people to use their own gas money to power the grid.  nobody is going to want to do that.  You say you wonder what an effect lenz's law would have on performance, lol... It depends on the draw but it would be enough that it would feel like you were driving everywhere riding your brakes.  Cars would overheat like crazy.  It's a bad idea, sorry.