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posted by martyb on Friday September 29 2017, @08:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the Betteridges-asks-where-would-we-put-the-cables? dept.

A recently published study estimates that up to 70 percent of the United States' electricity needs could be met through a newly devised system that harvests power from evaporation. This novel renewable power source uses bacterial spores to generate electricity and can sit on top of lakes and reservoirs.

Back in 2015, Ozgur Sahin and a team of scientists from Columbia University revealed an exciting new potential source of renewable energy. The team had created a way to generate energy from the natural process of evaporation using a certain type of bacterial spore. These spores expand and contract as they absorb evaporating moisture, and this oscillating motion could be harnessed to generate a small amount of power.

Where will we water ski?


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by FatPhil on Friday September 29 2017, @03:04PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday September 29 2017, @03:04PM (#574819) Homepage
    Cool pictures indeed. The devices are very clever, and very cute, but have you done the maths to see whether there's anything practical in the technique?

    I did, and I reckon their current setup might be able to harvest something like 30-200 W/km^2, as they're only generating microwatts in their small rig which is in a heated environment. And that's assuming it scales, which it won't, as little things like the weather will fuck things up.

    That's 6 orders of magnitude off PV.

    To help you visualise what 6 orders of magnitude looks like, here's something with 6 orders of magnitude less informtation content than the complete works of Shakespeare:

    poo
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Informative=1, Funny=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @03:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @03:24PM (#574838)

    I'm no Shakespeare, but I can improve on poo:
        Pooh