# Infrastructure-based Power Generation... Would this work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594 "2002-04-25T18:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/21 "2002-04-26T11:53:39Z")
Battery powered clocks have their own, internal, time base, but I can tell you I have three mains-powered alarm clocks and they all use the mains frequency as their base. In fact, the IC has a pin to select 50 / 60 hz. ---
**Author:** ![Phlip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Phlip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlip)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/22 "2002-04-26T11:57:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David Simmons \* > \*\*In order to “feed energy into the grid” the source has to be of precisely the correct frequency. And the power company is finicky about frequency. You can tell this by the accuracy with which your electric clock keeps time. > > None of the schemes mentioned so far would generate 60-hz alternating current with any degree of precision. > > The connection to the grid also has to be done when the source and and the grid are in phase. This is has to be done with precision, otherwise there would be a large transient current which shouldn’t bother the grid any but could easily damage your low power source. > > It’s would probably be wise to move on to some other idea, this is a loser. \*\* This could be over come by having the “power” brought into the “energy absorbtion system” in DC and then rectified to AC before pushed back to the grid. Same as a UPS. It can be synced to the 60hz from the power plant. And if you think that power from your local power plant is flowing at a steady 60hz, your living in dream land. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/23 "2002-04-26T12:03:21Z")
> [@](#): > > And if you think that power from your local power plant is flowing at a steady 60hz, your living in dream land. OK, so I guess that’s where I’m living. Care to elaborate? Are you talking about higher frequency components (noise), or the tiny amount by which the frequency shifts over the course of the day? ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/24 "2002-04-26T12:09:47Z")
I reckon a system where part of a road is some kind of a loop that rotates would be better. The loop can drive a flywheel which can in turn drive a generator. ---
**Author:** ![sirjamesp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@sirjamesp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sirjamesp)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/25 "2002-04-26T12:20:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by k2dave \* > A better solution is a home co-generation plant. Most homes burn fuel (oil or gas) - how about instead of just burning it for heat have it power a generator and use the waste heat to heat your home. The problem with this is that it is much more efficient to have one big generator supplying lots of homes than lots of little generators supplying individual homes. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/26 "2002-04-26T12:50:50Z")
**sirjamesp** that is the reason that utlities are a natural monopoly. BUt for some larger biuldings cogeneration does make sense. I would think that home co-gen would be a better solution then a pressure sensitive road for producing power. Also I would argue that the biggest obstical to home heating based power gen is the on-off nature of heating a house where you would get most of your inefficencies. A powerplant (that burns fuel) is only at the most 50% efficiennt due to losses in converting heat to work. the other 50% is lost up the stack. With co-gen that heat is used and wanted so you end up with a system that maybe is 25% eff. converting heat into work but of that remaining 75%, 80% of it can be used to heat so the total eff. is 85%. Now for the most part I pulled these %'ages out of my @$$ (7 years of mechanical engineering had something to do w/ them too 😉 ) - but is it more to show how it could work then acutally how much eff. you can get. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/27 "2002-04-26T13:09:36Z")
[http://www.topideas.com/listings/169.htm](http://www.topideas.com/listings/169.htm) or another one: [http://www.aesti.com/Product.htm](http://www.aesti.com/Product.htm) [at this site](http://www.aesti.com) > [@](#): > > The Dragon is Alternative Energies Sources Technologies’ patent pending “road” unit for generating electricity. Instead of producing fire, these Dragon Power StationsTMproduce electricity by vehicles driving over them. Conceived by AEST, Inc.’s founder and Chairman Terry D. Kenney, these units take advantage of the everyday traffic flow of an area and turn traffic patterns into energy generating grids. Neither site shows pictures or even a detailed description. Looks like marketing. I remember seeing a diagram of a power generator using seesaw-like sections of asphalt (maybe even here at the dope, can’t recall where). ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594/28 "2002-04-26T14:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phlip \* > \*\* > And if you think that power from your local power plant is flowing at a steady 60hz, your living in dream land. \*\* Yes, a single, isolated (i.e. not connected to the grid) power plant can shift frequency. However, on the grid all of the rotors of all of the power plants on the grid are magnetically coupled together. This represents a huge intertia and it operates at a fixed frequency that is {i]really\* hard to change. Say you have a steam turbine driven alternator connected to the grid. It is supplying a certain current at a certain frequency. If you open the throttle to admit more steam, all that happens is that the current you are supplying increases. The frequency doesn’t change. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infrastructure-based-power-generation-would-this-work/105594.md?page=1)