Dhaka, June 26 -- A team of Chinese scientists has developed a groundbreaking device capable of converting the friction between vehicle tires and roads into clean electricity.

The device, called the roadbed tribological energy harvester (RTE harvester), presents a novel approach to harnessing a vast and previously untapped source of energy.

An estimated 85 per cent of a car's energy is lost to heat and friction, with tire-road interaction alone holding an untapped energy potential of around 0.3 terawatts annually worldwide, equivalent to the yearly output of 30 dams of the Three Gorges project in China, reports Xinhua.

The researchers from Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems (BINN) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences craf...