Green Tip #28: Car-Powered Energy

Huh? This goes against everything that you thought you knew about cars and energy, right? I mean, I've often said over and over that cars use energy. Some use more than others (ahem, Hummers...) but when it comes down to it, all of our cars use a lot of gas and electricity (yes, even your fancy new Chevy Volts and your brand new shiny solar-powered hybrid Priuses (Priusi?) use energy. Don't feel all high and mighty, because you use energy too, just like the rest of us.)

So when you read Green Tip #28: Car-Powered Energy, you probably figure I just mixed up the words and I actually mean Energy-Powered Cars. Nope, not this time. I actually thought of a way to generate electricity just from driving your cars. So, I hope by now that you've heard of wind power (it has been around for a few thousand years, so I'd hope you've heard of it by now.) Anyway, most wind power comes from very large industrial sized wind turbines and somewhat large residential wind turbines. But what about tiny wind turbines?

Think about this: along the shoulders of all the major roads of this country, rows and rows of tiny little wind turbines. I mean, you probably know that when a large truck or van drives past you, you can feel the wind that is being pulled along behind them. What if we could harness that wind power to light the street lights and traffic lights?

I know this will never generate enough energy to make up for all the energy that we use driving cars (I'm looking at you Hummer drivers, and to a much lesser extent the Prius drivers) but at least it will offset some of it. So get out there and get those little wind turbines put in! You can start by stealing all those annoying little sunflower pinwheel things from peoples' yards and hooking them up to batteries. I mean, what's more eco-friendly than sunflowers?