Collaborate Disseminate
The idea of using human movement to generate electricity is something we’ve seen applied to many areas, including footwear, roads and, just this week, motion-powered mesh that heals injured tendons. Among these possibilities is flooring that can genera… Continue reading Nanogenerator wooden flooring powers lightbulbs with footsteps
[Tom Stanton] is right about one thing: flywheels make excellent playthings. Whether watching a spinning top that never seems to slow down, or feeling the weird forces a gyroscope exerts, …read more Continue reading Magnetic Bearings Put the Spin on This Flywheel Battery
Gripped as we are at the time of this writing by a historic heatwave, it’s hard for those of us in the western United States to picture a time when …read more Continue reading Black Starts: How the Grid Gets Restarted
Engineers at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) have developed a new type of thermoelectric generator that produces an electric current through a temperature gradient. By absorbing heat from the Sun on one surface and emitting it f… Continue reading Thermoelectric generator contrasts heat of Sun and cold of space
Engineers at MIT have developed a device that generates electricity using a completely new mechanism. “Particles” made of carbon nanotubes are dunked in an organic solvent, which induces a current to potentially power small robots or drive chemical rea… Continue reading Two-faced carbon nanotube particles generate electricity in MIT device
Wind energy isn’t quite as common of an alternative energy source as solar, at least for small installations. It’s usually much easier just to throw a few panels and a …read more Continue reading Full Size 3D-Printed Wind Turbine
Israel’s Aquarius Engines this week gave the world a first look at the tiny hydrogen engine it hopes can supplant gas engine-generators and hydrogen fuel cells in future electrified vehicles. Weighing just 22 lb (10 kg), the simple engine uses a single… Continue reading Tiny single-piston hydrogen engine repackages internal combustion
We’ve seen a number of thermoelectric camping stove/charger products over the years, and they tend to rely on wood/biomass-fueled heat. The new Gen Stove from Korea’s Viva Plus presents a thermoelectric charging solution that isn’t tied to live fire, p… Continue reading Portable camping stove charges gadgets using propane power
[Robert Murray-Smith] doesn’t like the price of inverters to convert DC to AC. That led him to build a dynamotor, or what is sometimes called a motor-generator set. These devices …read more Continue reading The Dynamotor Simplified
There are untold energy sources all around us, if we can just figure out how to tap into them. Swiss researchers have now demonstrated an environmentally friendly way to make spongy wood flooring that can generate electricity with every step.Continue R… Continue reading Spongy wood nanogenerators make for energy-harvesting smart floors