When it comes to imagining, eco-friendly inventions often take the cake. Not always, of course, but when they do they attract powerfully attention. In addition, they have the plus of being a bet with a lot of utopia and the same as reality.
And it is that, well thought out, on the one hand they have that magical something that dazzles or simply leaves us stupefied. Be that as it may, in one way or another they have an impact on the media level. The virality is assured with inventions that seem drawn from a hat of a magician, a time seeking sustainably solve such a basic necessity and everyday as electricity generation.
Artificial trees that produce energy, tiles that do it when walked on, ideas as rare as they are attractive that seek that difficult balance between respect for the environment and efficiency. How could inventions like these not surprise? The odd thing would be the opposite.
In this post we will tell you a little more about these and other crazy ideas that, why not, could eventually turn out to be revolutionary . Either perfecting themselves or finding their moment to begin to prosper, all of them are proposals that, although it may not seem like it, are very serious.
- Small forests of illuminated trees
- Tiles that generate electricity
- Produce energy from cheese
- Energy from space
- Black holes as a source of energy
- Conclusions
Index
Small forests of illuminated trees
It is not so difficult to imagine that in the future artificial trees fill our streets to produce energy while serving at night to solve the problem of urban lighting.
The first steps have already been taken from different research centers, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or the Ohio State University. Specifically, it has been the latter who have published in the Journal of Sound and Vibration (volume 363) their curious project, based on the capture of kinetic energy that is lost in cities.
Tree-shaped devices absorb some of these vibrations from buildings or road traffic , for example, to capture it through an electromechanical material called polyvinylidene polyfluoride. This is how tree-shaped structures can produce a small amount of electricity, but enough to light the streets. His invention is interesting, according to its creators, to locate where solar or wind installations are not possible.
Tiles that generate electricity
A company called Veranu, located in Sardinia, Italy, has created a tile that screams to be stepped on. Its reason for being is precisely that, to translate the footsteps into electricity.
Its strong point is flexibility and thinness , in addition to being made with recyclable material thanks to a sustainable raw material based on renewable plastics.
Of course, it takes a good influx to be able to obtain an amount of energy that is really worth it. For this reason, from Veranu they do not stop giving ideas, pointing out how interesting it would be to be able to install their Smart Energy Floor in places like the Rockefeller Center in New York or, for example, the Louvre pyramid, in Paris.
Produce energy from cheese
The next way to get renewable energy is cheese. It is milk, we could say to value it in a sympathetic way, and we would be right, because an association of French cheese producers, the Coopérativa laitière de Beaufortain obtains energy from its product, a local cheese known by the name of Beaufort.
It is a designation of origin that has a unique peculiarity in the world: the bacteria that are produced in a methanization process are used in order to produce energy.
The production model has had a methanization unit installed in the city of Albertville since 2015, which makes it possible. It has been installed by the Valvio company, specialized in the production of biogas from dairy products. The result, they convert the lactoserum (liquid that comes from the coagulation of milk) into their source of energy.
Energy from space
In this project that aims to extract solar energy thanks to a large solar power plant located in space, everything is big. If the approach in itself is fascinating, as well as impossible, the productivity expected from such an invention is also tremendous.
The initiative is still in its infancy, but it promises. We are talking about a joint project between Caltech (Institut de technologie de Californie) and Northrop Grumman, a group dedicated to space and defense activities.
Baptized with the name of Space Solar Power Initiative (SSPI), it seeks to manufacture an immense space structure capable of supplying solar energy to the entire planet. This would require the largest space structure ever built. The challenge, therefore, is first to create the technology capable of making it viable.
Black holes as a source of energy
Green energy from black holes. No, it is not a play on words or an unscientific idea. It is the brainchild of the famous physicist Stephpen Hawking, and it has its crumb.
According to Hawking, a mini hole would be enough to give Earth more than enough energy, but it would be dangerous. To such an extent that it would mean the end of the world . That, if we did not know how to take advantage of them, but doing so is not impossible, at least in theory.
Conclusions
The energy emitted by mini black holes is brutal, argues the scientist. “A mountain-sized black hole would emit X-rays and gamma rays at a speed of about 10 million megawatts, enough to power the entire world,” he says.
At the same time, without closing the door completely, he warns of the strangeness of the idea. “It would not be easy to take advantage of it. It could not be kept inside a power plant, since it would leave it and end up in the center of the Earth,” he concludes.
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