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Still playing catch up. This is the first I've heard of this.

Cape Breton Post

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Road to renewable energy may run through Cape Breton

By By Laura Jean Grant
the Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — The director of an alternative energy enterprise feels there’s a number of ideal locations in Cape Breton where the technology could be successful.

Stefanos Horianopoulos is director of Kinergypower, a company which has patented a device that essentially captures the kinetic energy from vehicles in motion and converts it to electricity.

Based in Welland, Ont., Horianopoulos has been spending some time in Cape Breton over the holidays with his wife, Sydney native Malena MacSween, and her family.

Horianopoulos and his brother, Dimitrios, invented Kinergypower in 2003, after experimenting with ways to harness energy from motor vehicle traffic. They came up with a way to transfer energy from the wheels of cars to a device to create energy through the use of hydraulic pistons. The system of hydraulic pistons can be installed either above or below the road and the vehicle doesn’t feel anything.

He noted Kinergypower is the cheapest way to generate energy and it’s emission-free.

“In essence we recycle energy,” he said.

As an example of how much power the system can generate, he said 30,000 cars travelling daily over a two-mile stretch of road with some 40,000 pistons would provide enough energy for approximately 20,000 homes.

Horianopoulos said with the patent in place and the prototype and scientific data to back them up, the company is eager to begin putting the technology into practice.

“We’re at the stage that we’re ready to apply the technology,” he said. “We’re looking to do a larger, major project.”

Horianopoulos said the Kinergypower systems can be installed on roadways, drive-thrus, shopping centres — anywhere there’s a regular flow of traffic.

Some areas in Cape Breton which he feels would be good locations for such technology include the Canso Causeway, local shopping malls and the Marine Atlantic ferry site in North Sydney. Horianopoulos said the volume of traffic at the ferry site makes it an “ideal situation to harvest energy.”

He added the manufacturing and installation process could also generate local employment.

In order to make the technology a reality in locations across the country, Horianopoulos said the company will need businesses and government to come on board as partners in various projects.


He said the concept is generating lots of interest, noting Welland city council has approved a system be installed along one road which will power the city’s street lights. That project is currently awaiting funding approval.

For more information on Kinergypower, visit www.kinergypower.com.