It's estimated that in the US alone there's over 140,000 miles of train tracks criss-crossing the country. So a team of researchers from New York's Stony Brook University have developed a simple railside generator that's able to convert the vibrations from a passing train into usable electricity.
Your average e-bike is just a regular bicycle fitted with an electric motor. When the battery dies, you can just revert to pedalling so you're not stranded. The new Footloose from Mando, however, takes a different approach. There's still a set of pedals, but they're used to power an alternator which generates…
Remember this day, friends. Remember when the cyborg beetles early first took flight in our labs and flew right into their world domination destiny. Look! Even now one of the brood is stealing a quarter, no doubt for financing purposes.
When you think power generation in the early 1900s, coal and steam generally come to mind. But in Alexis Madrigal's upcoming book, Powering The Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, he shows that people were trying to find environmentally friendly alternatives via ocean waves in the nascent days of…
What's an easier green power source to acquire than sun or wind? Random ambient vibrations, that's what. And that's exactly how some new generators juice up.
This generator looks like it's a great idea. Plop it down in a windy spot—like anywhere in the Bay Area right now—and it'll give you energy enough to power small devices.
It's an alarmingly simple concept that claims to be the world's first application: Netherlands-based company Natuurcafé La Port installed a power generator into a revolving door. Fantastic, but it took us this long?
It never hurts to take cues from nature when designing technology, and that's just what BioPower Systems did when engineering its bioSTREAM underwater generator. It's inspired by shark tails, using the shape in a fixed device that moves with the motion of the ocean. It reverses the use of the tail, with the water…
OK, so it isn't the finest week for free-energy machines, but perhaps the boys at Steorn are just giving this category a bad name. Some seemingly free-energy concepts make sense, because they are powered not by mystical cosmic vibrations, but actual earthly ones. Scientists at the University of Southampton have…
We're thinking this nanotechnology thing is catching on big-time. First someone figured out how to use the technology to keep panties fresh and odor-free, and now brilliant scientists have been developing small generators that might just be able to someday do away with batteries. They're first trying to develop a way…
While this isn't a "real" product, it seems pretty cool. It's a self-contained emergency kit complete with generator, a propane battery, and a trickle charger. There's also a first-aid kit in there, for when the rest of the stuff suddenly explodes.
Some smarty folks at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a backpack that helps you walk while also turning your movement into energy.
