Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/356
50 Feb 2009 ReSoURCeS Fly A Kite http://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg19826562.000-tomake- the-most-of-wind-power-go-fl y- akite.html%e2%80%9D Sky Sails http://www.skysails.info/index. php?id=472&l=2" hot Rock geothermal http://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg19926656.500-who- needs-coal-whenyou-can-mine- earths-deep-heat.html MIT Study of hot Rock geothermal http://web.mit.edu/newsoffi ce/2007/ geothermal.html Paint-on Solar Power http://www.inhabitat. com/2007/07/22/paint-on-solar- cells/ http://www.newscientist.com/ article/dn14293-organic-dye-lets- window-panes-harvestthe-sun.html nanoSolar http://nanosolar.com/technology.htm Carbon nano-Tube Solar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Carbon_nanotubes_in_photovoltaics hydro-Kinetic Power Study http://www.theage.com.au/national/ new-wave-of-power-in-renewable- energy-market-20081004-4tyd. html Wave Power (WSJ) http://online.wsj.com/article/ Sb122305758177602871.html The Magnetohydrodynamic Drive http://environment.newscientist. com/channel/earth/energy-fuels/ mg19926631.600-cold-war- caterpillar-drive-could-harvest-sea- power.html oregon Wave Power Project http://www.ft.com/cms/ s/0/79130bb8-909f-11dd-8abb- 0000779fd18c.html Portugal Wave Power Project http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ earthnews/3352408/british- technology-powers-revolutionary- wave-power-project-in-Portugal. html MOTION: SHAKE YOUR BODY Perhaps the most surprising emerging source of power is you. Yes, you, sitting there. Well, not when you're sitting there, but when you're out and about, walking and even dancing. And not just you — anything that moves, from bridges to trees to buildings — could be used to produce power from the motion. The technologies used to do so vary considerably, from piezoelectric materials generating electricity from pressure, to wobbling microgenerators, to small fl ywheels spun by moving magnets. In most cases, the amount of power generated is small, but that's fi ne if what you're trying to power are microsensors, bio-monitors, or — if you're really working at it — MP3 players. but fl oors that generate power from people walking on them (through piezoelectric materials or magnetic coils), now used in a variety of facilities from dance clubs to fi tness centers, can produce up to 60% of a facility's power needs, just from people doing what they came to do. Proximity: Slowly being deployed. Prognosis: Will designers and architects begin to think of fl oors as power sources? They should. GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE Few of these energy technologies offer a drop-in replacement for old-style coal plants and aging nuclear reactors. That's okay — they don't need to. The future of energy isn't in a centralized power grid, but in a loose, distributed network where buildings, vehicles, even people can be both power producers and power consumers. Solar walls and windows, power-generating fl oors, and neighborhood power kites don't add up to living off-grid — they add up to becoming the grid. The big energy production sites, even the wind farms and solar panels, are likely to evolve into the backup to the distributed power network. The advantage of distributed power comes down to resilience. As we've seen across a variety of systems, big, tightly linked, highly centralized systems can still fail, and when they go, they go catastrophically. Loosely interdependent, distributed systems tend to have more redundancy and fl exibility, and can more readily withstand unexpected shocks. Fortunately, the energy technologies within our grasp will fi t into a distributed grid quite nicely. A good thing, too — it's likely we still have quite a few big shocks ahead of us this century. It's almost as if the ancient philosophers had it right: it all really comes down to air, earth, fi re and water — and maybe a bit of dancing.