The cost of electricity in South Africa is a problem for them, but it doesn’t even seem the power plants can keep the electricity flowing anyways. One Cape Town native, Charlotte Slingsby, sent out to find a solution, and found it in a sheet of plastic that she calls Moya.
The Moya have little filaments hanging off of them that can capture tiny amounts of wind power at a time. Then the energy can be stored in a battery.
Loosing electricity randomly multiple times a day can be a real problem. It could prevent you from doing something so simple as pulling your car out of the garage to stopping someone’s life support machine. It also shuts down the alarm systems that the country heavily relies on to stop criminals. Slingsby says “It’s quite terrifying and it is those day to day things that you forget about. Every part of your day changes.” This only proves how much they need a reliable source of energy.
Slingsby made the design in a postgraduate program at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College of London. The design could be described as collecting small bits of energy and accumulating them into one large bit of energy, kind of like how one rain drop can contribute to a stream of water.
Small silver strands are moved by gusts of air. The fibers work under the piezoelectric effect. This is the ability for something to react to the change in pressure. The whole thing is made of polyvinylidene fluoride.
The prototype was used in a wind tunnel for testing. The creator says that the Moya can create 10% of the energy per square meter that a solar panel can. But, in case that sounds a little off, there is something else benefitting this invention. They can be placed where solar panels can’t. They could be placed under bridges or on the sides of buildings.
One idea is to install them in the London Underground, because it can not only catch the wind, but it could possibly be used to help absorb the wasted energy of a train stopping.
This product won’t be released for another five to ten years, because Slingsby hopes to make a marketable product. Until then, she can come up with more ideas of where to place her new invention.
In my opinion, she should consider turning it into a fabric and make energy producing clothes with it.
The Moya have little filaments hanging off of them that can capture tiny amounts of wind power at a time. Then the energy can be stored in a battery.
Loosing electricity randomly multiple times a day can be a real problem. It could prevent you from doing something so simple as pulling your car out of the garage to stopping someone’s life support machine. It also shuts down the alarm systems that the country heavily relies on to stop criminals. Slingsby says “It’s quite terrifying and it is those day to day things that you forget about. Every part of your day changes.” This only proves how much they need a reliable source of energy.
Slingsby made the design in a postgraduate program at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College of London. The design could be described as collecting small bits of energy and accumulating them into one large bit of energy, kind of like how one rain drop can contribute to a stream of water.
Small silver strands are moved by gusts of air. The fibers work under the piezoelectric effect. This is the ability for something to react to the change in pressure. The whole thing is made of polyvinylidene fluoride.
The prototype was used in a wind tunnel for testing. The creator says that the Moya can create 10% of the energy per square meter that a solar panel can. But, in case that sounds a little off, there is something else benefitting this invention. They can be placed where solar panels can’t. They could be placed under bridges or on the sides of buildings.
One idea is to install them in the London Underground, because it can not only catch the wind, but it could possibly be used to help absorb the wasted energy of a train stopping.
This product won’t be released for another five to ten years, because Slingsby hopes to make a marketable product. Until then, she can come up with more ideas of where to place her new invention.
In my opinion, she should consider turning it into a fabric and make energy producing clothes with it.