New way to generate electricity: viruses

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the human population in the next couple of decades will be centred around electricity/power needs. As consumption grows, with increasing use of technology, there’s also a need to discover ways to generate electricity without causing great environmental damage as can take place in the case of nuclear power.

Now scientists in from th e US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.

According the Berkeley news release: The scientists tested their approach by creating a generator that produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with specially engineered viruses. The viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge.

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So how does the generator work? It uses piezoelectric principles, which assume that physical stress can be converted into electricity.

According to the scientists at Berkeley: The milestone could lead to tiny devices that harvest electrical energy from the vibrations of everyday tasks such as shutting a door or climbing stairs. It also points to a simpler way to make microelectronic devices.

For more you can read here.