Electricty Generated by Slight Wind

Sounds great until it gets wet or clogged with a piece of dust.

I've been touting a way to harvest megawatts from thin air.

A method I testest and talked about here a decade ago.

Failure to observe the laws of thermodynamics was the warm response I received.

Last year I met with a buddy who owns and operates a successful electric component manufacturing facility in the burbs. He fully understands the concept and has been champing at the bit to get me building a newer better working prototype that he would fund.

I've been too busy playing catch up to consider a start date, and the pool of thought here just hasn't been invigorating.

How about a link to this ?

Vintage post

..dang phone.. must have updated to downgrade.

Later on

This is interesting, but I'm thinking, not a serious source of energy. I believe you could get more power out of a small wind turbine.

"In our work, the η of the B-TENG is about 3.23% at a wind velocity of 6 ms−1, which is much larger than the previously reported values ..."

(6 m/s ~ 12 mph)

"By increasing the wind velocity, the output performance of the wind harvester can be increased, reaching a maximum value at a wind velocity of 8 ms−1, including a voltage of 175 V, a current of 43 μA, and an output power of 2.5 mW."

(8 m/s ~ 16 mph)

The device lights 100 LEDs, not continuously, but intermittently by charging a capacitor.

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2666386420302228-mmc7.mp4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666386420302228?via%3Dihub

Great, another unreliable energy source...let's invest all our money in that useless tech...

I remember my parents insisting that my bicycle had to have a generator powered lamp. These have existed for more than half a century and used inefficient filament lamps!

And amazingly you can still buy them.

https://www.amazon.com/Wai-Danie-Generator-Waterproof-Alternating/dp/B07X2B1DVG/ref=asc_df_B07X2B1DVG

I do recall the additional drag was quite noticeable. I had one on my bike. LED's and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery are far more appealing.

True on the drag when applied to the front wheel. They came in 3-4W and 6-8W and lit the bike up well at night but did wear the tyre sidewall especially if dew got onto the tyre. There were even ones for the rich kids that were built into the front hub but I only dreamed of one of those.

All the ones I saw were AC, but a diode bridge and capacitor and you were a tech genius. Though the diodes were single none of those encapsulated bridges and electrolytic capacitors lacking capacity, "What they now have Farad capacitors, you're kidding me!"

I still have a couple in the shed somewhere.

I had one of those on my first bike. You could disengage it when it wasn't needed, but you could feel the drag when it was in use. One problem was that, when moving slowly like climbing a hill, the headlight was very dim.

Nowadays, you could rectify it and charge a rechargeable battery. I'm thinking that the only common rechargeables back then were heavy lead-acid and rectifiers were those funny looking things with the cooling fins.

Ah, yes. Selenium rectifiers. Do I get a gold star?

I still have an old Raleigh with the "rich kids" built-in generator hub. Still works. Original pinstriped paint job on the bike. Three speed rear hub. Front fork lock (quite a deterrent - thief had to carry the bike away instead of riding it).

Wind is generally methane if the person is a cabbage or legume consumer. It can be collected for use, but would generally require some sort of clothing modification to accommodate the plug, hose and bladder. Yup, I smell an IPO in the works.