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OLPC Experiments With Cow-Powered Laptops

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the moove-over-solar-power dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) is toying with a novel source of power for its low-cost XO laptops: cows. "We plan to drive a dynamo (taken from an old Fiat) through a system of belts and pulleys using cows/cattle," wrote OLPC's Arjun Sarwal, in an October 21 e-mail posted to one of the group's discussion lists. Sarwal and others are now finalizing the design of the cow-powered generator."

4 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Something doesn't smell right by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is no way this is true.
    There is no way they can get cows to power laptops, there is no way they would stay in their wheel.

    Now, if they suggested a beowolf cluster of hamsters then I would believe it.
    As it stands this article is just a load of bull.

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    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Something doesn't smell right by FredDC · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, it's pretty real, they've made a deal with the OCPC project (One Cow per Child). They give the cow needed to power their laptop! It's a pretty sweet deal, you get a laptop and a cow! Now that's marketing!

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    2. Re:Something doesn't smell right by Thaelon · · Score: 5, Informative

      The voluminous methane cows produce is from burping. Your tube would just get clogged at the end of the cow you chose.

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      Question everything

  2. Torque by Algorithmnast · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When you consider the use of a cow vs. the use of a small animal (like a hamster) you start having to understand how we turn physical motion into electricity.

    A small animal like a hamster is really cute, but they don't produce much usable electrical power. They only run long enough to get a workout, and if they get tired... they stop running. Yes, someone actually turned their hamster's wheel into a generator. The hamster could light up LEDs, but that's nowhere near powering a laptop.

    A cow, on the other hand, will produce excellent torque - if you can get it to walk - but then you waste some of that power changing the low-amp high-volt power into higher-amp lower-volt power. Remember - pumping water is essentially a high-torque/low-speed process, but most electrical generation is low-torque/high-speed. (But that's because most electrical generation is for AC power, not the charging of DC batteries. For DC charging, high-torque/low-RPM might work nicely.)

    However, what they're probably going for here isn't the optimal conversion of animal power to electrical power. What they're probably trying to do is transform into electricity what they perceive to be widely available power.