Briefing

The Weirdest Energy Sources In The World

Rob Wile

Jul 31, 2012, 11:34 PM

New sources of energy are constantly being discovered. And some are pretty inventive. From soccer balls to pigs to human body heat, here are some of the strangest alternative energy sources we’ve recently come across.

A soccer ball

Soccket Inc. created a soccer ball that contains an inductive coil that captures energy when the ball is hit. Fifteen minutes of play provides 3 hours of LED light.

Source: Soccket

Animals' behinds

Farmers are converting the methane from their herds' waste and converting it to energy.

Source: Business Insider

Inmates

A prison in suburban Sao Paolo, Brazil, is having convicts pedal bikes to power some of the town's street lamps.

Source: TimesLeader.com

Human body heat

A company called Perpetua has created a device it claims will power your iPod while you jog.

Source: Dvice.com

Human waste

A British company recently built a VW Bug powered by human waste.

Source: Daily Telegraph

The moon!

Last month, we told you about Norway's impressive power generation capacity from tides (which are regulated by the moon). Now, the U.S. has opened its first commercial tidal power plant in Maine.

Source: TechnologyReview.com

Shredded paper

Sony is making a device that extracts cellulose from scrap paper to power batteries.

Source: Industry Week

Wastewater

A Penn State research team has created power using wastewater-powered 'reverse electrodialysis,' where electrons are generated out of salt. The gradient is created by forcing wastewater and freshwater in and out of a membrane.

Source: Adjuvancy.com

Rice

Some Indian villages are now getting biodiesel power from recycled rice husks (the protective covering of a rice grain).

Source: Times Of India

Blood

A Swiss company has created a microscopic pacemaker turbine that gets powered by your bloodflow.

Source: Dvice.com

Pond scum

Algae contains high amounts of fatty molecules that can be extracted and converted into biodiesel.

Source: Business Insider

Doing nothing

Swedish designer Eddi Törnberg created this awesome set-up that powers his workspace from sitting around. The body heat of sitting in a chair, plants' natural acids and sugars, and heat from the desk appliances would all be converted into electricity.

Source: Eddi Tornberg