Posted on 11/09/2013 10:44:48 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Engineers at Duke University have designed a breakthrough gadget that 'harvests' background microwave radiation and converts it into electricity, with the same efficiency as solar panels.
The development, unveiled on Thursday, raises exciting possibilities such as recharging a phone wirelessly and providing power to remote locations that can't access conventional electricity.
And the researchers say that their inexpensive invention is remarkably versatile. It could be used to capture 'lost' energy from a range of sources such as satellite transmissions, sound signals or Wi-Fi.
The Duke engineers used metamaterials, which their press release describes as 'engineered structures that can capture various forms of wave energy and tune them for useful applications.'
They say the device harvested microwaves with an efficiency of 36.8 percent, similar to modern solar cells that capture light energy.
A report that will appear in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December states that this invention is capable of converting microwave signals to enough direct current voltage to recharge a cell phone battery.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip------------------------------------------------------
Possible uses for the new technology include building metamaterial into homes to ensure Wi-Fi signals are not just lost.
Electrical products could also have a device attached to increase efficiency by ensuring that excess power is not wasted.
In theory, the invention could also be used to beam signals from phone towers that could then be converted into electricity.
Electronic devices could be recharged wirelessly or electricity sent to remote areas without power cables. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Tesla invented it over 100 years ago, but it was “lost”.
Most directive antennas are by nature somewhat narrow banded and are limited in the range of the RF spectrum from which they can ‘scavenge.’
Secondly, efficiency in the antenna that picks up the energy is also important. A high quality standard parabolic antenna has an efficiency of about 55-60% (not a specially compound shaped reflector beyond parabolic).
Third, meta-material technology is mostly selective and also inherently narrow banded.
What am I saying here? The claims in the article alluded to a cornucopia of RF scavenging potential, implying broad banded scrounging of RF energy from wherever. In truth, it goes back to the old Heinlein saying “TANSTAAFL”. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
As an aside, the ‘investigators’ of this article are the only ones that have looked into this. Many, many others - Tesla among the first to do so.
Take it with a grain of salt.
Geeez, just how much radiation are we bathed in?
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe we could build a Faraday cage around our house out of that stuff, be protected from radiation and get a free ride on electricity at the same time.
What could possibly go wrong?
Now you’re thinking. I’m going to take this up with a few of our EE’s.
I wonder if you could transmit enough power to keep drones in the air?
Yes.
Wasn’t this a Tesla idea?
Chrystal radio sets have been around for more than a century.
Pretty old tech.
A lot.
Dagny Taggart tells me that Quentin Daniels is finally making progress on rebuilding John Galt’s motor.
I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
A single wire tuned for one AM broadcast radio frequency captures enough energy to run a crystal radio, including powering headphones at a decent volume, with no additional power. That’s not a lot of work to harvest enough energy to run low power electronics.
Until Galt walks into Daniels' lab, writes one simple equation on the board, and Daniels heads off to the Gulch.
Set up one next to the Fukushima nuke plant.
Background radiation is remnant of the Big Bang, not man made.
every thing is a remnant of the big bang
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.