Electricity out of thin air?

[Dr. Nürburg]

Tiny charges gathered directly from humid air could be harnessed to generate electricity, researchers say.

Dr Fernando Galembeck told the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston that the technique exploited a little-known atmospheric effect.

Tests had shown that metals could be used to gather the charges, he said, opening up a potential energy source in humid climates.

However, experts disagree about the mechanism and the scale of the effect.

"The basic idea is that when you have any solid or liquid in a humid environment, you have absorption of water at the surface," Dr Galembeck, from the University of Campinas in Brazil, told BBC News.

"The work I'm presenting here shows that metals placed under a wet environment actually become charged."

Dr Galembeck and his colleagues isolated various metals and pairs of metals separated by a non-conducting separator - a capacitor, in effect - and allowed nitrogen gas with varying amounts of water vapour to pass over them.

What the team found was that charge built up on the metals - in varying amounts, and either positive or negative. Such charge could be connected to a circuit periodically to create useful electricity.

The effect is incredibly small - gathering an amount of charge 100 million times smaller over a given area than a solar cell produces - but seems to represent a means of charge accumulation that has been overlooked until now.

Dr Galembeck suggests that with further development, the principle could be extended to become a renewable energy resource in humid parts of the world, such as the tropics.

Source: BBC
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[garyoak99]

That is some interesting research but the problem is that the amount of electricity harnessed by such sources simply won't power much of anything right now.

There also seems to be a problem with the conditions the testing was being done under too:

[Lost_Guy]

Well, if it took any of the humidity out of the air that sure would make me happy! If they thinned it out to get the most surface area exposed, that could be useful maybe.

I guess this proves that Emperor Palpatine definitely got his recommended daily allowance of iron.

[Dr. Nürburg]

Whatever your view on global warming, if you don't want to live in a clean energy world, which is more quiet and odor free then you're nuts.

Clean energies are paramount whatever the green house says.
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[mladen]

This sounds too theoretical.

I liked the idea of solar panels, wind turbines, tidal turbines, there were even experimental wave turbines that are proven concepts. There are ways, but clean energy is still rarely used.

[Supertoad1472]

well, at a musiem, dont they have those glass balls, and the vols of electricity like, fly around in them, is that sorta what you meran

[Holovision]

What would be nice is if material scientists were working more on the technology to harness lightning. The energy would be better in a smart grid rather than hitting a tree and causing a forest fire; which would ultimately save a few lives. It may not be as reliable as unreliable wind power but definitely more bang for the buck.

[D!RTYD@N76]

gotta agree with the way 2 theoretical part of this topic even though it may have potential but not 2 promising 4 the near or imediate futures, but who know? solar power on the other hand 'has the the best chance of getting us away from and staying away from comanys like pg & e and thier price hiking agenda's, eventually making us dependant on only 1 thing, the sun.... In my home city of concord,CA every school in the district got new covered solar panelled parking lots over the summer!!! smart move! about 15 or 16 schools all together including 4 high schools. oh &" ARCADEBOSS RULES"!!!

[Mind0verMatter]

Good idea, but solar power, wind, and fusion are whats going on now, this could be another way to produce renewable energy in the future though. Just add another option to the ever growing list of renewable energy sources.