New Energy Engineers Significantly Advance MotionPower Technology

New EnergyTechnologies, Inc. announced that early durability tests of the company’s MotionPower device for generating electricity from the movement of cars and light trucks have produced significant design and performance advancements – developments that are key to future commercial deployment of the technology.

This announcement follows on the heels of the successful completion of first-ever durability tests of the MotionPower technology conducted during the busy Labor Day long weekend at a Burger King drive-thru in Hillside, NJ. Data collected and analyzed from these tests have produced important advancements to the MotionPower technology, including a reduction in size and maintenance costs, while increasing the system’s capacity to produce electrical power.

“Our first prototype was tested at speeds below 5 mph and each car passing over the MotionPower device depressed a mechanical actuator, generating approximately 2,000 watts of input power. This power was instantly captured and then converted into electricity. New Energy’s next generation MotionPower system will extend the input power cycle for a longer period of time; the longer we can extend this input power cycle the more electricity the system will generate,” explained engineer Gerard Lynch. “We’re also keen to incorporate advancements related to maintenance costs, durability, size, and driver comfort –all very important to the final product.”

Among specific advancements to the company’s next generation MotionPower technology for generating electricity from the motion of cars and light trucks, are:
• Increasing the amount of electricity generated from each pass of a vehicle by making use of multiple input power mechanisms, and a novel storage system which will help to better utilize the power of each wheel’s weight, capture it and retain it for conversion to electrical energy.
• Improving durability of the system through design modifications and materials selection.
• New design features, mimicking the appearance and feel of a conventional speed bump/hump.
• Reducing the length of the system to 12” from 12’ by eliminating the existing elevated ramp structures.
Minimizing the vertical height of the system in order to calm potential driver disruption; and reduce the rolling resistance of the device.
• Repositioning moving parts into a single housing unit, allowing for quicker, easier and lower-cost maintenance.

New Energy’s MotionPower technology is designed to be installed in locations where vehicles are not “robbed” of energy they would otherwise use to accelerate. Instead, MotionPower devices convert the vehicles’ excess kinetic rolling energy not used or effectively captured (in regenerative braking systems), and creatively converts that energy into a novel alternative energy source.

Every day, millions of vehicles slow or come to a stop at toll plazas, rest areas, traffic calming areas, drive-thrus, and countless other roadway points. New Energy hopes to utilize its MotionPower devices make use of the energy wasted by these millions of cars, trucks, and heavy vehicles when they slow down or come to a full stop countless times throughout the day, and convert this otherwise wasted energy into valuable, clean electricity.

Once fully optimized and installed, engineers anticipate that MotionPower devices may be used to augment or replace conventional electrical supplies for powering roadway signs, street and building lights, storage systems for back-up and emergency power, and other electronics, appliances, and even devices used in homes and businesses such as the commercial sites participating in New Energy’s durability tests.

“Our recent field tests of the MotionPower device have provided us with much-needed data that engineers have analyzed in order to substantially improve upon the design, functionality and output capacity of our system,” stated Meetesh Patel, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.

“I’m eager to complete this phase of our durability tests at commercial sites such as the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC and the Holiday Inn Express, Baltimore, MD,” Patel added. “Each test yields the data and real-world feedback we need in order to help engineers continue to refine our MotionPower technology for maximum performance and eventual commercial deployment.”