Highway Harvest 2.0: Optimizing Ways to Harness Renewable Energy on Highways

Overview

This project focused on many aspects of harvesting renewable energy from highways, including cars, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT), cost, traffic, and solar panels. Four vehicle types (pickup, sedan, SUV, truck) were modeled in SolidWorks and tested in wind tunnel experiments with a smoke machine, followed by CFD simulations to confirm results. The optimal placement and size for the VAWT were determined through more CFD and mathematical analysis. The turbine modification was based on previous work where different hybrid VAWT models were tested to find the optimal design (Helix+Savonius); however, in that work, both turbines were fixed and moved together, but here each component was adapted to rotate independently. Once the wind power was estimated, solar potential was also analyzed, optimizing tilt angles for Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and BC. Traffic data (AADT) was also used to obtain an overall daily power estimation, which was later followed by a cost analysis.

Awards (2)

• Bronze Medal
• Selected for CWSF 2026

Competition history

• CWSF 2026 Energy

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.