Trucks, lorries and cars are dirty, right, creating more problems as the world faces the challenges of climate change? Well, yes, but Alfons Huber, the founder and CEO of REPS , thinks vehicles can also play a crucial role in confronting such challenges. The Austrian start-up is pioneering the commercialization of new technology that converts the kinetic energy of vehicles into clean electricity.

“There is a huge potential to harvest this energy,” explains Huber, who is today announcing that REPS – the acronym stands for road energy production system – has raised $23.6 million of new funding. “We can use road infrastructure that already exists and capture all that mechanical energy that is otherwise going to waste.”

It’s a deceptively simple idea. REPS installs hydraulic triggers underneath the road surface in areas where vehicles naturally brake; these triggers channel the energy from the vehicle to a system of magnets that generates electricity. The magnet-based generation equipment is important, explains Huber, because other people experimenting in this area have found alternative means of converting vehicle energy into electricity to be relatively inefficient.

So far, so good, but does the technology work in practice? Huber points to the impressive track record of REPS’s first commercial installation, which has been operating at the Port of Hamburg in Germany since November last year. So far, more than 115,00 trucks have driven over this stretch of road, he explains, generating more than 6,700 kWh of electricity. “We’ve showed the world that this can really work,” Huber says.

REPS’s internal projections demonstrate what is possible. Expanding the Port of Hamburg initiative with around 230 further installations would generate around 10 GWh of electricity a year, the company says. That would be enough to power around 2,800 households and to offset roughly almost 10% of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by port traffic.

Justin Karnbach, the CEO of Hamburger Container Service, says the results at the port have been exciting. “The installation at our facility demonstrates the potential of REPS,” he says. “Where vehicles have to brake anyway, clean energy is recovered and can be used directly where we need it, without any interference with traffic and without additional space."

Initially, REPS plans to focus on these industrial areas, where a constant flow of heavy traffic in and out of facilities can sustain electricity production. But over time, the system could be deployed on public roads. REPS has calculated that in a city such as Dubai, for example, the deployment of 64,000 systems would generate around 3.2 TWh of electricity annually, the equivalent of almost 11% of electricity consumption today.

Leveraging the Hamburg project, REPS in talks with a growing number of customers interested in its technology, across both the public and private sectors. In the ports sector alone, the company has held discussions with around 90 potential customers in Europe, North America and Asia. The company can either sell customers the equipment outright, or install and manage it on behalf, selling the electricity.

“Roads are everywhere. Traffic is everywhere. What was previously wasted energy can now be transformed into clean electricity,” adds Huber, who is particularly proud that it’s a small Austrian company – REPS is based close to Innsbruck in the Tyrol region – that is pioneering this technology.

The business has won praise from the country’s policymakers, who are keen to encourage a growing start-up culture in Austria. “REPS is innovation made in Austria and showcases what our founders are capable of,” says Elisabeth Zehetner, Austria’s Secretary for Energy, Startups and Tourism. “They don’t just make small adjustments; they transform entire systems.”

Today’s significant fundraising should now help the company to capitalize on its early success, with a substantial round that will support further commercialization. The funding – from an as yet unnamed investor – will accelerate the company’s ability to leverage its patents, Huber says. “We spent six years developing the technology; now the scaling phase begins – the strong demand from ports and logistics operators worldwide confirms the need for our solution.”