TAK Studio thinks up turbine-powered street lights, again

The idea for TAK Studio's Turbine Lights works like this: cars drive by on the highway, creating wind that spins the turbines built onto the streetlights. The turbine then turn and generate electricity, which powers the streetlights at night or, we hope, gets fed into the grid. It's a good idea, and one of the finalists for the Greener Gadgets Conference taking place later this month in New York City. There's just one issue: this isn't a new idea at all.

Back in 2007, a company called Hybridine Power Systems created solar- and wind-powered streetlights and we found a crude animated video of the concept back in 2006. We don't have anything against TAK Studio pushing to turn the idea from concept to reality, but let's not pretend this is a new thing. See the other Green Gadget nominees, including the Corky computer mouse that is powered by simply moving it around or Rocco, the energy-generating rocking horse, here.

[Source: Greener Gadgets via Green Car Reports]