Sustainable tunnel lighting system based on mechanical-regulated and soft-contact hybridized nanogenerator

Tunnel lighting consumes nearly 30 % of the energy in the whole infrastructure, so optimizing the lighting control strategy could significantly increase the energy utilization efficiency. However, there is still lack of an intelligent and cost-effective lighting control system. Here, we report a low-cost, intelligent, and self-powered tunnel lighting control system based on the mechanical-regulated and soft-contact hybridized nanogenerator (MS-HNG) as both the power supply and distributed traffic monitoring sensor. Benefited from the mechanical regulation and frequency up-conversion design, the MS-HNG can effectively convert the energy into electricity from intermittent stimulation of the moving vehicle and thus offers a maximum output power of 108 mW to transmit the traffic information wirelessly. The introducing of soft fur also endows HNG with excellent stability and durability, showing a negligible decrease in the output over 100,000 cycles. Moreover, an “illumination traveling with the vehicle” sustainable tunnel lighting system which could save energy by 72 % at a traffic volume of 20 veh/h compared with the traditional one is successfully demonstrated. This work may pave the way for industrial applications of nanogenerators and shows great potential in energy-efficient and intelligent transportation systems (ITS).