Green energy is rapidly becoming a viable solution for powering the modern world.
Finding sources of green energy is a growing challenge for most scientists and companies across the globe to harness the potential and in order to solve the impending needs in modern world and high-tech lifestyles. When it comes to green energy, everyone’s heard about the usual source such as solar power, wind and hydro-electricity captured with dams or from the tides.
But the world of green energy is full of scientists with massive imaginations and they have come up with some pretty amazing ideas. These scientists are continuing the quest of abundant, cheap and efficient energy by investigating the more unusual sources, ones that may seems a little bizarre, unrealistic and even ridiculous in some cases.
Here are lesser-known sources of green energy;
1. Anaerobic Digesters
Anaerobic digesters are quintessential example of the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. These machines used micro-organisms that ‘eat’ biological waste (grass clippings, food waste or even cow dung) and capture the methane that produced from the process. Methane is a huge contributor to global warming if it is allowed to rise into the atmosphere but capturing and burning it for energy, it rather breaks down to less harmful chemicals.
Kinetic energy is an energy produced when you move, something that scientists have been trying to figure out to harness since a long time. The kinetic dance floor has debuted at clubs and concerts, and it uses the impact of dancing feet to create electricity. The dance floor however has to be on the bigger size to generate enough power but surely the project has a lot of potential. What if street lights could be powered by footsteps on a sidewalk?
3. Sound Waves
When a quartz crystal (like the one found in wrist watches) is put under pressure, it releases a small electric charge. This is called piezoelectricity and it’s the basis of a lot of renewable energy concepts. One idea has had use these crystals to catch sound waves which will produce the necessary charge just from ambient sound. This is possible to make things like self-charging cell phones to viable if the technology could be properly harnessed. This same technology has been worked onto clothing that allows people to charge a cell phone while simply walking around.
4. Algae
The slimy green scum that grows in ponds and fish tanks might actually be the future of fuel. Algae produces more than half of its body weight in lipid oils, and those oils can be converted rather easily into an efficient form of biodiesel. The obstacle that has to be overcome is scaling up production to meet energy demands but there are already dozens of companies working on it.
5. Human Body Electricity
Anyone who’s seen The Matrix knows that the human body generates a lot of electricity just by existing. Artist Naomi Kizhner has taken this concept to a whole new level by creating jewellery that plugs into your body, using your pulse to power the mechanism. While this is still a theoretical energy source, it is a good reminder of how much power is all around us – and inside us – that isn’t being harnessed, and also raises the question of how far we’ll go to produce the power we need.
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