Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: jeffreyH on 17/09/2018 14:02:34
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The question is prompted by this article. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/13/rain-or-shine-new-solar-cell-captures-energy-from-raindrops. Are there other sources of energy that anyone can think of?
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The question is prompted by this article. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/13/rain-or-shine-new-solar-cell-captures-energy-from-raindrops. Are there other sources of energy that anyone can think of?
Ummmm .... the older I get the more gassy I get. But having a hose and collection tank is not something I'd want to walk around with.
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Osmotic power (extracting power from the mixing of fresh water and salt water), is not as frequently discussed as other renewable sources, and is a reasonable one in terms of how much energy can be extracted (though, despite being renewable, it is not necessarily environmentally friendly).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power
Also tidal power (extracting energy from the Earth-moon and Earth-sun orbital systems) is another one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power
One could also imagine extracting energy from Earth's rotation (which I guess Tidal power does indirectly), taking advantage of the Coriolis effect (like a Foucault pendulum) but it would take a massive capital investment to grab even the tiniest amount of energy this way (and it would also lengthen our days, so if we were somehow able to extract lots of useful energy this way, it could ultimately be bad for the environment too, but we would get SO MUCH energy!)
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I wonder if the charge in the ionosphere could be tapped in anyway. I think Colin made a comment some time ago on this forum regarding the possibility of thunder clouds charging from the ionosphere, I had not heard of this before, but it may be plausible. Perhaps creating artificial conductive clouds to bring the charge in the ionosphere down to ground in a controllable way. Maybe inflating balloons floating them up to gain charge, and then deflating them and bringing them down to ground.
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Ummmm .... the older I get the more gassy I get. But having a hose and collection tank is not something I'd want to walk around with.
Maybe on large dairy farms methane this could be a side product :) or in old folks homes :( It would involve complete control over the movements of gas producers