The San Francisco metropolitan area had the nation's highest average price per gallon of gas as consumer costs escalated during 2000. (Corbis Corporation)

Piezoelectric energy is a form of electric energy produced by certain solid materials when they are deformed. (The word piezohas its roots in the Greek word piezein meaning "to press.") Discovery of the piezoelectric effect is credited to Pierre and Jacques Curie who observed in 1880 that certain quartz crystals produced electricity when put under pressure.

Quartz is a crystalline piezoelectric material composed of silicon and oxygen atoms and is illustrative of a piezoelectric material. If no forces are applied to a quartz crystal the distribution of charges is symmetric at the sites of the atoms and there is no net internal electric field. Squeezing or stretching a quartz crystal displaces atoms from their normal positions producing a separation of positive charges and negative charges...