Wrap Your Brain Around A Backpack That Creates Electricity
The US Army is testing an “electric backpack” that uses a spring-based frame to harvest kinetic energy from the motion of your hips as you walk.
energy harvesting
New Energy Efficiency System Passes the Abrams Tank Test
In its ever-expanding quest for new energy-efficient devices, the Army Research Laboratory has been applying the thermoelectric effect to an M1 Abrams tank, and the project could ripple out into every nook and cranny of the civilian sector. Thermoelectricity basically taps the difference between hot and cold temperatures to … [continued]
Brave Little Solar-Powered Robot Tracks Hurricane Isaac
A solar-powered, wave-hopping robot named Alex was launched into the ocean by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) earlier this month to help improve hurricane tracking, and the boogie-board-sized craft has already had its first taste of action. It has been busily collecting ocean data on the fringes of … [continued]
Home Energy-Harvesting Tech
I recently ran across a story about a home energy-harvesting tech company called EnOcean. The company mostly offers such tech for commercial environments, but is reportedly moving more and more into the residential arena. Examples of what kind of tech I’m talking about? Lighting, HVAC, security, and digital health monitoring … [continued]
Reducing Wasted Energy with Nanocrystal-Coated Fibers
Sooooo much energy is wasted by technology these days, and a ton of it is wasted in the form of heat (a whopping 58% in the U.S.). The good news is, that means there’s a lot of potential to tap/capture that wasted energy and use it for better purposes. … [continued]
Shake Remote, Turn Off Television
With potential laptops powered by typing and watches powered by moving one’s arm, energy harvesting is a growing field with a number of cool products. In Japan, Murata Manufacturing is firmly on board the trend with sensors to detect and convert vibration, temperature gradient, ambient heat, and light into small amounts of electricity. Their most recent offering uses a variety of their sensors in combination with a flexible plate to send several different signals without the need for batteries.
More than Half of U.S. Energy Goes to Waste – But Not for Long
Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimate that the U.S. loses more than half the energy it generates. That doesn’t include heating and cooling loss from buildings, just energy that vanishes into the atmosphere from machines, industrial processes and electronic equipment. In order to reclaim and recycle some of this energy,
The Knights Who Say Knee Power: Canadian Forces Follow in the Footsteps of Monty Python
When the Monty Python crew dreamed up an all-powerful word that sounds like “Knee!” little did they know that not too many years later a power-generating knee would emerge from the sustainability shrubbery, so to speak. The new clean energy device, a product of the startup company Bionic Power, Inc., … [continued]
The Car of the Future Will Eat Its Own Exhaust
GM, not content to rest on the laurels of its highly rated new Chevy Volt electric/gasoline car, is working with researchers at Purdue University to develop thermoelectric generators that can harvest the waste heat from a car’s exhaust and turn it into electricity. The initial goal is to reduce fuel … [continued]
