How about harnessing footstep energy by actually walking to places? I am developing a distrust in attempts to squeeze the last bit of energy out of things. There are too many cases where extremes of specific efficiency are accompanied by gross whole-system inefficiency.
That is, I have a growing suspicion that optimum efficiency is not always maximum efficiency. Like, why does cow-dung burn? -D ----- Original Message ---- From: AltEnergyNetwork <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Saturday, 29 September, 2007 7:32:40 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Power harnessed one step at a time Power harnessed one step at a time In the push to harvest alternative energy, scientists have tapped a number of novel sources: the sun, corn, old cooking oil. But how about the simple act of walking? For two architecture students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., the sound of footsteps is an echo of energy gone to waste. They figure that the stomp of every footfall gives off enough power to light two 60-watt bulbs for one second. "Now imagine how many people walk through a train station each morning, or walk down the street in Hong Kong," says James Graham, who, with fellow MIT graduate student Thaddeus Jusczyk, is helping to develop the growing field of "crowd farming." http://blog.alternate-energy.net/entries/entry_19.php Get your daily alternative energy news Alternate Energy Resource Network 1000+ news sources-resources updated daily http://www.alternate-energy.net News Blog http://blog.alternate-energy.net/index.php Next_Generation_Grid http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/next_generation_grid Alternative_Energy_Politics http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Alternative_Energy_Politics Tomorrow-energy http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/tomorrow-energy Earth_Rescue_International http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Earth_Rescue_International _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20071001/9e949666/attachment.html _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
