Wei Lei and Shanhui Fan, two engineering students, respectively from the University of California and Stanford University, together with materials scientist Aaswath Raman, have made a device that can generate voltage using the day’s warmth in the cold night air.
At its best, the device can generate around 25 milliwatts of power per square meter. It may not be big, but it is something. As it is just a prototype, this is a massive step, and with the right temperature, conditions, and enhancement, 500 milliwatts can be achieved soon.
Undoubtedly, it opens up a bag full of new opportunities, with the scientists hoping that this can work to our advantage if we are able to harness something out of the cold atmosphere of outer space.
Credit where it is due, solar energy was a wonderful invention and will be the future, but it can’t be relied upon for all the 24 hours of the day..
The future completely depends on renewable energy sources
With the continuous depletion of conventional energy resources, scientists have been on a constant lookout to find new sources of energy, that do not get depleted with use. Solar energy and wind energy have been a few examples of them.
They have made commendable use of the thermoelectric effect. They deployed a material, scientifically called thermocouple, which has helped them to convert the change in the temperature to voltage difference.
When you return back from your work and the demands of energy are the highest, do you often wonder how energy could be discovered from other sources? Overuse of electric power in mining bitcoins and running blockchains could be very critical in the future. I dare say, who holds the power, holds the gold.
So far, we have used up the fossil fuels to cover up, but its time we start moving to the renewable sources slowly and steadily.
While we are working on major renewable sources, we should make sure that the minor ones do not slip out.
