Design and Implementation of a Sustainable Energy Generating Pad for Lightweight Transportation

Energy generation from new alternative resources is a dire need for sustainable energy development. Due to the adverse effect of carbon emissions, there are efforts to develop a non-carbon emissions-based sustainable energy generation system. This work describes the development of a Sustainable Energy Generating Pad (SEGP) for lightweight transportation. The SEGP is successfully designed and simulated with Proteus software. After that, A SEGP was successfully developed and fabricated in the Prairie View A&M University's Smart Center. The 5 feet long SEGP is made of a special type of thin-film PZT cells which is the power-generating source. Each cell is connected to a power collection unit. The main purpose of this power collection unit is to utilize the maximum produced electricity to store in the storage device. The developed SEGP was tested by lightweight transportation such as a bike. The total weight of the bike with a rider is around 148 lbs, and the tested load is $\boldsymbol{10} \ \mathbf{k}\boldsymbol{\Omega.}$ Each PZT cell produces an average of 85 VDC, and the current is around 0.20 mA. So, the electricity produced from the 5 feet long SEGP is remarkable at around 0.61 W/sec/ride.