The need of the day is cheap energy which should be renewable. Whenever we talk about renewable energy, Solar Energy strikes our mind first. Nanoenergy and Battery-free Energy systems are the other things people crave for.
Richard Swanson of SunPower Corporation says that two of the main challenges confronting photovoltaics are a shortage of silicon and a lack of efficiency as scientists try to push toward the theoretical limit of 29 percent. He predicts that panels should reach $1.50 per watt by 2012.
Other eminent personalities at the IEEE’s IEDM conference voiced their opinions about the same issue. the University of California at Berkeley’s Jan Rabaey discussed the state of ‘Disappearing Electronics’, super low-power devices that need no batteries or outside power supply, instead relying upon microgenerators. These generators could be used in implantable medical devices such as pacemakers as well as low power sensors for industrial use. Rabaey showed some of his own work on battery-free tire pressure sensors, and he’s currently developing a next-generation ‘intelligent tire’ with cymbal transducers that convert impact acceleration into power for sensors. Such tires could measure all aspects of tire performance in real time.
What became the center of attraction at the conference was the nanogenerators. The first was a DARPA-sponsored project for nanoscale thermoelectric energy harvesting. Basically the idea is to create a thin-film, solid-state heat pump that turns temperature variance directly into electricity—taking advantage of a phenomenon called the Seebeck effect. The scientists behind it saw an application in implantable biomedical devices, but they also offered an innovative potential use as a layer on top of computer chips. As the chip heats up, it could produce enough power to run a fan on the heat sink that would cool it down.
However, Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, stole the limelight with a piezoelectric nanogenerator he is experimenting with, though Wang uses the term Nano-Piezotronics. Wang has created nano-wires out of zinc oxide (pictured above) that create an electric charge when bent. Suspended over these tiny wires is a zigzagging series of electrodes. When vibrations shake the whole setup, the wires act like a brush over the electrodes, sending a stream of electricity. They are used for implantable biomedical devices and sensors for industrial use.
Via: Popular Mechanics
