Gentle breezes can also generate electricity. Recently, scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed low-cost power generation equipment that can generate 3 volts and 290 microwatts even with a breeze at a speed as low as two meters per second, which is sufficient to power a commercial sensor.
In addition, the new device is also lightweight and durable. The team calls it a "wind harvester." It has a power generation function and can also transfer unused power to a battery. It can supply power to equipment when there is no wind, so it has an opportunity to replace LED or structural integrity sensor batteries on traditional buildings and bridges.
The size of this new device is only 15 x 20 cm and can be installed on the side of a building. Yang Yaowen, a structural engineer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NUK (CEE), stated that the team's research aims to use wind energy to develop small-scale energy with more targeted functions. Collectors, for example to power smaller sensors and electronics.
Yang Yaowen said that the device developed by the team can also replace small lithium-ion batteries in commercial products because the new wind energy harvester is self-sufficient, requires only occasional maintenance, and does not use any heavy metals at all.
Its main body is made of durable polymer fiber epoxy resin, which mainly interacts with the wind, and other structures are made of materials such as copper, aluminum foil, and Teflon. The wind will create a vibration causing a substrate to approach or move away from a plug and an electric current will form as the charge flows from aluminum foil to copper film.
In lab tests, the new device was able to continuously power 40 LEDs at wind speeds of 4 meters per second and also trigger a sensor device to provide enough power to wirelessly transmit a message to a cell phone.
Not only can the new device generate electricity to continuously power other devices, but it can store enough excess charge to keep devices powered for long periods of time in the absence of wind. Yang Yaowen pointed out that wind energy can be said to be an inexhaustible, non-polluting clean energy source, and now it has been proven that new inventions can effectively use sustainable energy to charge batteries and light LEDs, providing opportunities for smaller, more powerful next-generation electronics.
（Image：pixabay）
