California eyes unusual power source: its gridlocked roads

The California Energy Commission is investing $2 million to study whether piezoelectric crystals can be used to produce electricity from the mechanical energy created by vehicles driving on roads.

Scientists already know the technology works, but the state needs to figure out whether it can produce high returns without costing too much.

Maybe it's also part of the process of generating it, said Paul Bunje, a scientist at a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that funds technological developments and the former founding director of UCLA's Center for Climate Change Solutions.

The hope is that the use of clean energy produced by roads will help the state reach its goal of producing 50 percent of California's electricity with renewables by 2030, Gravely said.

Whether the technology can withstand the wear and tear of traffic is something that concerns Joe Mahoney, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Most notably, an Israeli company whose pilot test attracted global attention in 2009 is now in the process of liquidation, and the project was unsuccessful, according to the Israeli roads authority.