Yo-Yo Action is the Key to Zero Carbon Charger

If you’ve ever spun a yo-yo, you’ll have no trouble getting the hang of Easy Energy’s new YoGen handheld charger.  According to its North American manufacturer Fame LLC, the tiny powerhouse was a big hit at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show last week in Vegas.

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YoGen was designed to power portable electronics by pulling on a rip-cord, an activity familiar to yo-yo fans worldwide.  The device, which has innards that look like clockworks, basically consists of an alternator that transfers enough sustainable kinetic energy to charge cell phones, iPods, Gameboys, cameras, and the like.  It might seem like all fun and games, but a gadget like this might play a big role in future U.S. military logistics.

YoGen and Sustainable Chargers

YoGen is just one among a bevy of electronic device chargers that do not rely on conventional fossil fuels and batteries, such as windup chargers, solar chargers, and many others.  The idea is that small gadgets don’t need much of a charge, so any human being in reasonable good shape can generate enough energy to do the job.

Sustainable Chargers and the U.S. Military

The U.S. military is hungry to kick the fossil fuel habit and it has adopted a military sustainability policy to that effect.  In some ways the military is far outstripping the civilian world in its acceptance of the need to make a radical change.  Lightweight, portable products like YoGen fit right into the military’s focus on giving expensive (and life-threatening) fuel convoys the boot in favor of portable fuel cells and high tech batteries, along with energy that can be scavenged or harvested onsite, including portable solar energy and other sources of low or zero carbon power.

Image:  Yo-Yo by Mickey Glitter on flickr.com.