Generate Electricity from Passing Trains

Innowattech has collaborated with Israel's National Railway Company to apply the technology of harvesting electricity from passing trains using Innowattech's rail pad (IPEG PAD) which placed on smart rail field as piezoelectric energy generator.

Previously, similar technology was applied by Innowattech to harvest electrical energy on the highway by a passing car or vehicle. Innowattech pads are made the same external geometry of the original pads with an additional piezoelectric elements embedded to harvest mechanical strain which will convert into electrical power.

In this project a total of 32 railway pads have been replaced with Innowattech's energy harvesting pads as a local solution to power needs. Pads consisting of a piezoelectric disk allows to convert mechanical pressure into electrical output. Pads can also be used to determine the number of wheels, the weight of each wheel, capitation wheels, wheel perimeter positions, concluding speed rail and wheel diameter. Uniquely, the energy used is the energy gain of the system itself.

The evaluation results found that railway track areas that get between 10 and 20 ten-car trains an hour, able to generate about 120 kwh per hour. The electricity can be used on the railway itself, power the signaling or to be transferred to the grid.