New technology integrates a ramp-step (elaborated with polymeric material similar to the ones used in the manufacture of tires) that elevates to five centimeters above the level of the street. When receiving the impact of a vehicle, this ramp exerts pressure on a set of bellows below. The bellows contain air that is expelled at a certain pressure through a hose; later, this element travels to a tank where it is compressed and relaunched to an electricity generating turbine.
"This is a technology that provides sustainable energy and could be implemented at low prices, since it's a complement of already existing infrastructure: the concrete of streets and avenues," Héctor Ricardo Macías Hernández, developer of the system, said. He added that at a global level there are no records of similar projects, with exception of an English patent, but with the difference that in the European country piezoelectric floors are used, which are too expensive for developing countries
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