Six Unusual Ways of Obtaining Green Energy

Burning waste

Civilized man always struggled to deal with all the waste produced. While most of the modern countries still rely on relatively new (in terms of the history of humankind) method, which is a garbage dump full that pollutes everything around and doesn’t serve the environment. Sweden came up with a wise idea of utilizing their waste in a profitable way – trash is being sent to select facilities that burn all the waste which results in excessive steam, which then is converted into energy. Sweden manages to dispose of so much of its waste, that the government started to import over 800,000 tons of waste from neighboring countries in order to turn it into green energy.

Bio Bricks

This innovative prototype may indeed be a future of ecological housing. These so-called Bio Bricks (or Living Bricks) utilize metabolic processes of microbes to convert air, sunrays and polluted water into energy. Their metabolic process focuses to literally „consume” the above resources and provide us electricity as a side effect. While current prototypes generate just enough energy to power a LED bulb or similar small devices, it may be possible to research necessary technology. Such knowledge may provide a possibility to construct walls that will emit light based purely on microbes metabolic cycle.

A scientist from Harvard University managed to build a battery that is literally fueled by dirt. The Microbial Fuel Cell battery is a low-cost way to provide people with means of storing energy. It is built from easily accessible resources such as a bucket, saltwater, graphite-cloth anode, mud, manure, a layer of sand and a chicken-wire cathode. Dirt Batteries may be used to provide poorer regions (or those with a high risk of power shortages) with an improvised way of storing energy for emergency use, such as flashlights.

Liquid Magma

The Government of Iceland has decided to go into a literally hot topic – Energy from volcanic Magma. Its temperature varies from 650 to 1250 Celsius degrees and is able to produce much more energy than average geothermal sources, which will mainly cut energy-production costs. Currently, Iceland is involved in Deep Drilling Project, which is targeting to use magmatic power from a five-kilometer hole that is being dug by a massive drill. It is possible to generate up to 50 MW of energy thanks to reaching steam in an above-critical state.” The company responsible for two drill sites (IDDP) reports that drilling two 5km deep holes will cost at least 11.000.000 Euro (€).

Synthetic/Metal Trees

Engineers from all over the world are already working to gather green energy in the most sophisticated ways. However, scientists from Ohio State University came up with rather an odd idea – mechanical trees. These objects are supposed to remind trees, as they will move on the wind similar to natural trees. Those slight movements generate vibrations that can be turned into energy, thanks to using such resources as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDV). While the power output is rather tiny and doesn’t usually exceed two volts per unit, the project may later grow big by utilizing PVDV for large skyscrapers that would yield more energy.

Solar-Kinetic streetlights

A cutting-edge startup company EnGoPlanet has developed an interesting way to obtain energy. Streetlights are gathering the sun energy during the day, and at night it uses kinetic energy generated by pedestrians. Special kinetic energy pads are installed into the walkways that gather the energy from people that step on them, and movement detectors will only light area nearby people and not the whole street. It is a small but efficient way of reducing energy, especially as streetlights worldwide generate over 100.000.000 tons of CO2 a year.

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