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Amazing Strawscraper to harvest energy in cool, creepy way

Amazing Strawscraper to harvest energy in cool, creepy way

No, you're not looking at a scene from The Matrix, or evidence that we've been invaded by aliens. That's the design concept for the Strawscraper, a new addition to the Söder Torn tower in Stockholm, Sweden, and those creepy-looking, glowing alien-like 'feelers' on the outside will be how the building generates electricity.

The move towards clean energy is going to be inevitable. It's not even a matter of whether or not fossil fuel burning is going to cause irreparable damage to the planet by climate change (although it will if we keep going at our current pace). There just isn't an inexhaustible source of fossil fuels, so eventually we're going to get to the point where we run out (or whatever happens to be left is just far too expensive to bother with). Some building designs have incorporated solar power, and some have installed wind turbines, but the Strawscraper is going even more high-tech in its design.

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It's going to use a concept called piezoelectricity, which means 'electricity through pressure'. The 'straws' on the outside of the building will be made from plastic with layers of crystal inside. As the straws wave back and forth in the wind, the bending motion puts pressure on the crystals and they generate an electric charge. The building can then harvest this charge to provide electricity to the tenants, and it can produce electricity from even the slightest of breeze. Furthermore, unlike wind turbines, which have generated a rather bad reputation for themselves (although whether that's deserved is still up in the air) and are considered to be an eyesore to some, these piezoelectric straws add an extremely cool 'sci-fi' look to the building.

The concept of piezoelectricity has been around for over 130 years now, but it's seeing a lot more innovative ideas in recent years, mostly in the form of 'energy harvesting'.

There are already plans to use this in medical devices, such as a pacemaker that is powered by the motion of the heart that it's regulating. It could go far beyond that, though, taking advantage of the 'incidental' parts of our lives to generate useful electricity.

When you walk around, the movement of your arms and legs work to propel you forward and maintain your balance, but what if the work you did to move your limbs could also, incidentally, power your portable devices? It can if you make a coat or a pair of shoes with piezoelectric material in them, so that every movement or step would produce electric charge that could be stored. Or, maybe cut out the middle-man and turn your coat itself into a portable device (iJacket?).

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There's also ideas to install piezoelectric material in sidewalks, using pedestrians as a power source, and that could likely be adapted for roads as well. Just taking a look at how many people walk around downtown on any given day, and how many cars are on the roads, the potential power generation could be significant.

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