T-Box : Wind Power From Passing Train

Now harnessing wind power would not necessarily mean huge windmills and giant turbines because engineers have found out another revolutionary method for the same.

#-Link-Snipped-#A device capable of capturing the wind created by the trains as they pass down the track with enormous speed has been developed by Industrial engineers from China. A device called T-Box is installed between the railroad ties. A T- Box is a power generator of the new generation. It applies the same principle as the traditional generators already in use, the only difference being in its nature to utilize the energy. The device can be placed along any railway or subway. This T-Box is buried half underground between the concrete sleepers so as to not interfere with the normal train operation. The blades of the turbine rotate about a central axis inside the T-Box's cylinder. Only a little of the device would be visible with only the vents exposed to let in the wind. The design is based on models manufactured by Hetronix. The turbine inside the T-Box spins with the effect of the wind that is developed as the train passes with a huge speed and develops electricity.

Qian Jiang and Alessandro Leonetti Luparini, who are the creators of the T-Box, said that to utilize the otherwise wasted wind energy generated by the passing train, a total of 150 T-Boxes could be installed along a kilometer(0.62 miles) distance. The T-Box not only utilizes the energy which is going waste but also makes better use of the space which can otherwise be of no use. Through research it has been found out that a wind speed equivalent to almost 50 feet/second would be produced by a train traveling approximately 125 mph. The turbines in the T-Box will produce about 3,500 Watts of power capturing this wind.  The T-Box would produce about 2.6 kilowatts of power if the train is about 656 feet long and traveling at around 187 mph and passing over that 1 km. The device is expected to provide energy sufficient to serve the railways’ works.

The T-Box's design was exhibited last summer at the Xue Xue Institute in Taipei, Taiwan and won a silver medal in last year's Lite-On Awards. With this device being utilized on a large scale successfully, we can definitely make use of a lot of energy going waste and which can be easily made available for a lot of purposes. Wind energy going greener.

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