Innovative Sources Of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is energy generated from natural sources according to Wikipedia. While the most famous sources of renewable energy are solar, wind, biomass, ocean tides, hydroelectricity etc. that is far from the end of the story. Many startups and tech savvy individuals have  developed even more innovative and ‘alternate’ sources of renewable energy using sources that are sometimes unthinkable ranging from onion skin to bacteria and algae. The basic target for these more innovative solutions to the energy crisis at this moment is to provide a combustible liquid. Here are some of these more innovative sources of renewable energy.

Innovation In Solar Power:

Besides the usual use of solar cells in solar power plants and solar cars, many startups have built the so called zero power or smart power house which basically is a house that uses no external sources of electricity and generates all it’s required power itself. an example is Virginia Tech’s Laumenhaus.

Another application of solar cells we here think is practical is the solar road. In stead of building solar car we build a solar road for the entire community and build cars which simplify charge themselves from this energy source.  Such an approach is being considered by a startup Solar Roadways which has also been awarded a grant of $100,000 by US department of transport.

Power From Bacteria:

Also discussed in an earlier post here the idea is to use a bio-engineered strain of bacteria which can produce under the influence of sunlight carbon containing liquids which are then used as fuel. An example is the so called solar converter from the UK startup  joulebio.

                                                      The Solar Converter

Onions For Energy:

Gills Onions is  a onion processing company faced with a power bill crunch. They develop a system which converts onion waste to biogas which is burnt to run their refrigerators and lighting. The result is that they are saving $700,000 a year on their power bills.Almost 30% of onion skin is wasted and the idea is very simple convert it into juice and blow it up, you get biogas. What’s appealing about this idea is that such plants can be established in small communities eliminating the need for transporting power from one place to the other. The system converts methane obtained by fermentation of onion skin into energy using 2 specifically designed burning chambers. Gills expects the system to recover it’s cost in about 6 years.

Energy From Algae:

Algae (the green goo) can generate more biomass than any kind of vegetable. In order to further minimize  the amount of algae required for unit fuel generation. The process used is photosynthesis as with bacteria. Give algae water, carbon dioxide and sunlight and they will be produce oil that can be harvested to biodiesel. For sustained production all you need to provide is water and carbon dioxide as the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide is quite less than what is required. The solution is to develop specialized photobioreactors to provide the right amount of both. This process is also green as it uses carbon dioxide and produces clean oxygen. Solix biofuels is one of the few startups who have invested in this technology, oligae is another.

                                                          This is a newly developed plate reactor
                                                          for an optimum light management in the
                                                         cultivation of microalgae as a source of
                                                        energy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Energy From Vibration:

Everything vibrates unless it’s frozen at zero kelvin. This energy can be converted to other forms of energy. Several successful experiments have been demonstrated

1. In Japan the friction of walking by pedestrians is used to generate electrical energy  which is stored and is used to run the streetlights.
2. Electric gadgets that are charged by vibration are being produced commercially e.g mp3 players are available which can be charged by jerking them.
3. Many  sensors which have to be deployed in remote areas are increasingly being powered by converting surrounding vibrations to electrical energy using some sort of energy harvesting mechanism.

Chicken Faeces and Urine:

Oh no, but yes chicken faeces emits methane and can be used as a biogas. Enough said. Urine can be used to extract hydrogen by electrolysis with a nickel electrode.

Human Fat:

According to Jeremy Clarkson ( the top gear guy if you’re from another galaxy) “Being fat is the next stage of evolution”. So why not use all this fat to produce some energy, researchers have developed means to convert the excess fat of liposuction into  a biofuel.

The Future:

1. At this stage the viable sources of renewable energy are solar, wind, hydel,hydrogen,  ocean tides, biomass  and geothermal. But in the future we will need other more innovative energy sources to compliment these more ‘famous’ sources.
2. An important point about future power sources will be localization of production where small communities can generate enough power for their own consumption.
3. Big corporations will be out. They are too brain dead and greedy for innovation. It’s the small startups and tech nerds from top universities that will provide the next big break in energy resources.
4. We don’t have an energy crisis. The real crisis is a management crisis. We just can’t manage the amount of energy thrown at us by the sun alone so talk about others. Once we’re able to manage  our resources we will have no energy crisis. After all hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe for a reason.

ΠΗΓΗ:
http://www.nerdmodo.com/2009/08/innovative-sources-of-renewable-energy/