Untapped energy is all around us -- it's just a matter of finding creative solutions for harnessing it.
When you ask the average person about where energy comes from, they likely think of the standard sources. Oil. Coal. Natural gas. Solar and wind. Even geothermal or hydropower, perhaps. These sources provide the foundation for how we fuel our everyday lives. But energy is much more than just power plants. Around the world, a diverse set of creative problem solvers are discovering ways to produce energy that go far beyond the conventional. The world’s population continues to grow at a rapid clip. As more people are packing into already-dense areas, power will need to come from sources that embrace efficiency. For the cities of the future to thrive, it’s vital that we identify sources of power to meet a demand that will increase rapidly over the next quarter-century and beyond.
Here are some technological innovations are changing the way we think about producing power:
The common thread in each of these examples: A dedication to finding a new way. The energy challenges the world will face over the next 50 years might not have easy answers, but there are people determined to solve them, reversing what the creators of the SOCCKET ball have dubbed “the Empower problem.”
When you ask the average person about where energy comes from, they likely think of the standard sources. Oil. Coal. Natural gas. Solar and wind. Even geothermal or hydropower, perhaps. These sources provide the foundation for how we fuel our everyday lives. But energy is much more than just power plants. Around the world, a diverse set of creative problem solvers are discovering ways to produce energy that go far beyond the conventional. The world’s population continues to grow at a rapid clip. As more people are packing into already-dense areas, power will need to come from sources that embrace efficiency. For the cities of the future to thrive, it’s vital that we identify sources of power to meet a demand that will increase rapidly over the next quarter-century and beyond.
Here are some technological innovations are changing the way we think about producing power:
- sOccket, a plug-in soccer ball that captures energy during a game and uses it to charge LEDs and batteries.Uncharted Play’s SOCCKET ball also uses them to create energy. The soccer ball, which uses a similar process to convert human activity into usable energy, has immense potential to bring electricity to rural areas which lie off the conventional electricity grid. The SOCCKET has even drawn the admiration of President Barack Obama, who hailed the product for turning “one of the most popular games...into a source of electricity and progress.”
- Powering your phone with your feet. Imagine if producing energy was as simple as walking to a field and kicking a ball. Turns out, it can be. Pavegen and Uncharted Play are two companies specializing in the development of advanced technology that converts the kinetic energy of human movement to storable, usable electricity.This March, Pavegen installed 14 of its innovative sidewalk tiles outside a train station in Saint Omer, France. The tiles, which create energy as people walk on top of them, will illuminate LED bench lighting and fuel two USB ports within the station — allowing patrons to literally power their electronic devices with their feet.
- One man’s waste, one city’s treasure. Often, the waste we produce has just as much potential to bring more energy to more people.For example, think about the coffee grounds you toss away every day. Those grounds contain more than just the remnants of your morning caffeine fix — they can produce significant energy. Biobean, a firm based in London, discovered that coffee shops in its metropolis throw away over 200,000 tons of grounds per year. Now, they process those grounds through a unique recycling process, converting them into carbon-neutral biofuel. Businesses in London then use that fuel to power buildings and transportation, completing the cycle.
- In the United States, biomass, a sustainable, natural source of energy derived from natural material, is making the most of waste. Consider the city of Milwaukee, where companies process food waste in landfills — like bones from dinner plates and excess yeast from brewing — into methane gas, powering tens of thousands of households. In rural areas biofuels can be used in mechanised milling and small scale electrification systems. In cities, they are widely used for transport, thereby reducing the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
- Discovering the hidden properties of di erent materials is the key to developing technology that is more energy efficient. We may not be able to wave goodbye to power-hungry technology any time soon but, by uncovering new ways to power our phones and computers, synchrotron light could be the spark that sets off the next generation of energy-efficient gadgets.
The common thread in each of these examples: A dedication to finding a new way. The energy challenges the world will face over the next 50 years might not have easy answers, but there are people determined to solve them, reversing what the creators of the SOCCKET ball have dubbed “the Empower problem.”
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