Wind-powered Wi-Fi Sensors

Glenn Fleishman writes "According to an article at Indolink a 10-centimeter diameter windmill can produce the 7.5 milliwatts needed for a wireless sensor. The paper was published earlier (available as a PDF), but Nature magazine has apparently picked up the tidbit. The process flexes piezoelectric crystals to create a current. Although flywheels aren't mentioned in this article, it seems like a windmill, a flywheel, and a solar cell could in combination produce effective power in a range of conditions for remote wireless devices, including network relays obviating batteries entirely."

Comments

A really clever joke...

[Aundy]

In Soviet Russia, the power generating windmills come to you!

Re:Not to optismitic about being commercialized ye

[dbIII]

That's the problem with alternate energies, they're cool and great for the environment but lack of efficiency means you usually have to suffer to be a good citizen.

I've played with an old electronic calculator which plugs into the mains socket, but ones with little solar cells and no battery at all are far more convenient these days.

The principles behind things like the device described have been known for some time, but as energy requirements to do stuff decreases they increase in usefulness.