Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 15:55 WIB

Bronze harvester of natural energy for electricity in toll roads

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Surabaya, IO – Toll roads in Indonesia are not yet operated with the support of new renewable energies (NRE) as the source of their electrical energy. Therefore, Ilham Erick Kurniawan, Fachry Azca Haidar Fayumi, Mohammad Alfan Affandy, and Firas Quthbi Sidqi of the November Tenth Institute of Technology (Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember – “ITS”) Electronic Engineering Department have created a breakthrough wind and solar energy harvester to serve as an independent source of electricity for use in toll roads, and won a Bronze medal in 34th National Students’ Scientific Week in the Craftsmanship feld, Poster category, last month.

The four designed the device with a vertical axis wind-turbine concept, able to generate optimum electrical energy during low wind speeds, “… such as the ones generated from traffic along toll roads,” Ilham stated in the release received by the Independent Observer last Saturday (27/11/2021).

energy harvester
A diagram of the natural energy harvester, which includes an illustration of its electronic component assembly, controller and battery arrangements.

Other than utilizing wind energy, it can harvest other electrical energy sources: “When the toll roads are quiet and little wind is generated, our device is designed to capture solar energy to convert into electrical energy,” Ilham said. “The turbine model is designed so that the incoming wind can be flowed into the piezoelectric converter located under the turbine. We select the most suitable piezoelectric configuration to ensure that our turbine generates maximum power.”

energy harvester
A diagram of the natural energy harvester, which includes an illustration of its electronic component assembly, controller and battery arrangements.

Ilham went on to state that his team’s device is better than conventional solar panels currently avail able. Not only is it driven by NRE, their turbine generates electrical energy in much higher amounts at lower production cost and much more affordable maintenance costs. “Using this turbine will also significantly reduce the use of electricity generated by conventional electricity generators,” he said confidently.

For their next development idea, Ilham and co. is adding automation on their device as well as remote monitoring. “Our desire is to implement our innovation in the outermost, borderline, and underdeveloped regions in Indonesia and increase the proportion of NRE in our nation’s energy mix,” he said. (est)

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