If There’s Gridlock, Will There Be Brownout?

They’ve harnessed running water, blowing wind, the sun, even decaying garbage. Why not the motoring decibel?

Alhambra City Councilman Michael A. Blanco thinks that the San Bernardino Freeway may be an untapped source of energy. Admitting that the idea is a bit “on the far side,” Blanco nevertheless asked Monday for a report on the feasibility of converting freeway noise into electrical energy.

Blanco said he was inspired by a high school project that he did more than 20 years ago that converted light into heat, and by projects he has heard of that turn methane gas from landfills into useful energy. A freeway-noise-to-electricity project might be impractical, he said, “but it is worth looking at.”

Alhambra Public Works Director Terry James, who will do the study, said his first stop will be the public library, to look up any research on noise-to-power generation.

Isadore Rudnick, UCLA emeritus professor of physics and an acoustics expert, said that although it might be possible to do some useful task with sound power in a low-gravity situation such as an orbiting spacecraft, freeways just aren’t loud enough.

“You would need a very, very loud sound to do any work,” Rudnick said.