Till date we had been of the view that

clubs are the maximum consumers

of electricity as the music and the

lighting systems consume a lot of

power on daily basis. Now the clubs

are an excellent place to generate

power too. The idea was

implemented by a club, Bar Surya, in

London, that re-outfitted its floor with

springs. The springs when

compressed by dancers, produce

electrical current. This current is

stored in batteries and consumed to

run the devices in the club.

According to the club’s owner,

Andrew Charalambous, the dance

floor can now power 60 percent of the

club’s energy needs.

• The innovative device designed by Vandenbussche, POWA Water Generator, is just a small turbine that is placed in between the hosepipe used to wash to cars or water the lawn. As the water rushes through the pipe, the blades of the small turbine turn and generate electricity. This company envisioned the system to charge the batteries of the electric cars but this electricity can be used for other purposes also.

Snake

• Anaconda is a snake with a rubber tube body, 200 yards in length or longer, filled with nothing but water. The snake is capable of generating 1MW (Megawatt) of power per year. The set up contains harnessed snakes, allowed to swim. The waves in the sea stimulate a ‘bulge wave’ which passes down the tube and gathers enough energy to drive a turbine in its tail. The electricity generated by the turbine can be captured and carried to shore by cables. Groups of 50 anacondas could each generate enough electricity to power 50,000 homes. The project is being developed by the Checkmate Group said.

Concrete roads absorb a lot of heat. A company from Holland, OomsAvenhorn Groep bv, came up with a brilliant idea of using this heat to generate power. The heat can be extracted and used. Here they use the heat to warm water running in pipes under the roads. This warm water can be used to generate electricity as well as can be supplied to houses and buildings. This system provides hot water to the buildings while keeping the roads ice free in winters. This reduces gas bills and road maintenance and can produce electricity too.

• A Pakistani scientist, Dr. SyedTajamul Hussain, working at National Center for Physics (NCP) (Islamabad), invented a nano-catalyst with his research team, to produce low carbon emission bio-diesel and ethanol from used tea leaves. The nanoparticlescan produce 560 ml of bio-diesel from each kilogram of used tea. If scaled up to a commercial basis, it would be a giant step towards production of alternative energy resources.

Himalayan pine needles are about 25cm long and very slender. Yet, a few kilos worth of these tiny needles, collected from 1-2 hectares of land, hold the potential to provide electricity for 50 people and cooking charcoal for 5 people. Once these needles are put into a gassifiersystem, 15% of the needle is burned while the other 85% is brought to a scorching temperature of 800 degrees Celsius. At this temperature the needle converts to gas. Once this gas is filtered, it can be used to drive an alternator that generates electricity. The waste from the part of the needle that is burned can be converted into charcoal bricks for use in the kitchen. Amazing, huh?

Green Gyms A gym in Berlin, Germany, has installed special plug-ins to their

training devices that allow people to charge their phones or MP3 players with the energy they produce while working out. Other sustainable gyms have appeared in Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. According to Steven Clinefelter, president of the Hong Kong-based company Motorwave Group that introduced the gyms in 2008, one person has the ability to produce 50 watts of electricity when exercising at a moderate pace. Theoretically, 20 minutes of riding a bike, for example, produces enough power to dry your hair after the post-workout shower. (Source: Reuters

Rain Drops In 2008, scientists from CEA/Leti-Minatec, a research

institute specializing in microelectronics in Grenoble, France, developed a system that is able to collect the energy produced by a single, falling raindrop. The vibrations a drop of rain causes are converted by sensors that convert impacts into electricity . According to the findings, the average raindrop ranging in diameter from one to five millimetres, could deliver an energy output of up to 12 milliwatts. Generally, slower falling raindrops generate more energy because the faster ones lose impact due to splash. (Source: Reuters)

GOLF A golf player needs a lot of energy to swing the club.

This immense kinetic energy could be harvested, and stored for later use. Freelance concept designer Mac Funamizu had the idea to build such a harvester into the golf club grip. Later, the player can re-use it to charge phones, laptops or other electronic gadgets

Researchers from the electrical components manufacturer MagCap Engineering in Massachusetts, USA, hammered wire-attached nails into tree trunks, and a conductor into the ground, they found out that living trees are a faint source of electricity, created by an imbalance in pH between the soil and the tree. Afterwards, researchers at the University of Washington successfully run an electric circuit powered by trees. The amount of electrical power might be very small but the scientists believe that it would be enough to power wireless sensors that might help to analyze ecological conditions, or warn about fires

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