Speed bumps are widely used on roads and car parks to oblige drivers to reduce their speed, mainly for security reasons.

Now an international retail group, the French Auchan, has decided to test a new kind of speed bump at car park of one of its shopping centers, near Milan. The "Lybra" Power Bump prototype, able to couple road safety and renewable energy production, has been developed by the Italian company Underground Power, in cooperation with the Polytechnic University of Milan.

The device can capture part of the energy the cars produce by passing over it, turning it into a magnetic field and then into electric energy. No energy is actually "stolen" from the passing cars, while some kinetic energy is recovered that would otherwise just be lost. It has been estimated that with an average traffic of 8,500 cars per day, it would be possible to generate up to 100 MWh every year, the same energy that would be produced by a 80 kW photovoltaic plant.

If the project proves successful, more Power Bumps will be installed in other hypermarkets. A mass production of the Power Bumps would lower costs and make the recovered energy cheaper, helping at the same time to compensate part of the CO2 emissions connected to road transport.