Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Quis custodiet the custard?

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Pyroelectric Asphalt Roads

Hot Roads that Generate Electricity
  (+3)
(+3)
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Before we decide to relay all the asphalt roads, or redo our infrastructure in the US, perhaps you should evaluate the potential for laying a pyroelectric layer so that when those roads heat up they generate electricity and thereby pay for themselves :]
quantum_flux, Aug 17 2011

I don't know what this has to do with anything... http://www.pyroelectro.com/
[xandram, Aug 17 2011]

Piezo Sidewalks http://artfuldodger...c-Energy-Harvesting
Not the article I read, but the same thing. A little light on the science, no mention of any implementation. [Alterother, Aug 17 2011]

Strain and Spin Makes for Ultralow Energy Computing http://www.machines...ow-energy-computing
Traffic driving over strain gauges could also make computers as well, perhaps. [quantum_flux, Aug 19 2011]

[link]






       Or possibly 'pyroelectric'. Or, perhaps, 'thermoelectric', which might even be relevant to the situation [q_f] describes.
lurch, Aug 17 2011
  

       HOT roads=PyroElectric! (oops, I didn't read [lurch]'s anno) but I found a pyroelectro link.
xandram, Aug 17 2011
  

       Either PopMech or PopSci floated a proposal a few years back about piezo-sidewalks at busy intersections to power the streetlights and traffic signals. The article said that one city in the US was giving serious thought to the idea; I think it was Philly. I'll link later if I find it.
Alterother, Aug 17 2011
  

       Spelling Corrected, it's Pyroelectric, sorry
quantum_flux, Aug 18 2011
  

       No need to apologize, he's dead.
8th of 7, Aug 18 2011
  

       In an airplane accident, so maybe he should have had a road take him home.
baconbrain, Aug 18 2011
  

       Before the name change I was looking forward to all of the street signs rendered in pieroglyphics.   

       Now it's just...
useful.
  

       tsh   
      
[annotate]
  


 

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