The initial study of freeway wind didn't stop with the data collection. I continued to bang my head against the wall, trying to understand if there really was an opportunity to be had. Our idea was simple: modify Jersey barriers to contain three turbines each, and connect them via a local power grid to the municipal power grid. My patent search indicated there are several dozen people who have filed a patent for this idea since the 1930's, yet no one has succeeded yet. We spun up Wind and Road Electric to begin investigating this idea. After six months of research with all of the studies pointing in the same direction (thumbs down), I attended the Sandia National Labs' Wind Turbine Blade summit. (A three day conference discussing nothing but wind turbine blades. It was surprisingly interesting.) After speaking to people from the DoE, Seimens, GE and a global consulting firm, my suspicions were confirmed. Nearly everyone in the industry has thought of this idea, and everyone eventually found their way to the same conclusions: Betz's Law pretty much puts the kibosh on VAWT-turbulence harvesting. Some folks had gone even further, exposing that blade reliability would be the biggest challenge even if the laminar airflow supported enough energy. I found it entertaining that so many minds had wandered down the same path.