Road Noise Charges Electric Cars With Peugeot Piezoelectric Billboard
Energy-harvesting billboards designed by Peugeot have been demonstrated in time to celebrate their new e-208 electric vehicle.
Peugeot, along with agency BETC, designed the first billboard composed of thousands of acoustic sensors with piezoelectric properties, capable of charging electric vehicles using cities’ noise pollution. The device absorbs the vibrations emitted by city sound waves to help recharge the new e-208, 100% electric model.
To demonstrate their commitment to Unboring the Future, as well as its notable entry into the electrical market, Peugeot highlighted the virtues of a promising new technology: piezo-electricity, which generates an electric current when put under stress—in this case, sound.
Thierry Lonziano, Peugeot Global Marketing and Communication Director, explains this experimental approach:
"It is essential for the brand to contribute to building the world of tomorrow by exploring new areas of innovation in the electrification of our vehicle range. Of course, it cannot charge the entire vehicle yet. We still need the urban network, but this is a very encouraging start."
The installation was produced in partnership with the Clear Channel display network and was exhibited at Porte Maillot in Paris from the 23 to 30 October 2019.
Science fiction writers have you covered on foreseeing the future, as usual. In his 1956 story Gypped, sf writer Lloyd Biggle, Jr. described how free electrical power is available in ordinary city noise:
An engineer saw the study and published a speculation on the amount of on harnessed energy released hourly in the noise of the average large city. Other scientists and engineers became interested in eventually they you've all the now famous Fottengill process, by which all major cities of Earth have free electrical power conveniently processed from their own noise.
(Read about the Fottengill process of energy harvesting)
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