Although solar energy is regarded as a clean and sustainable energy source, its disadvantages are also obvious in places covered by heavy snow. However, a research team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has proposed a new type of equipment that can use snow to generate electricity. This is a triboelectric nano-generator (Snow TENG), which can generate charge through the exchange of electrostatic particles. Because snow is positively charged, we can draw energy from the friction of oppositely charged materials.
(Photo from: ScienceDirect, via New Atlas)
Previously, people have made generators in the form of body movements, touches, and even pedals. But after a series of comprehensive tests, the UCLA team finally chose silicone as the most effective material.
It is worth mentioning that Snow TENG supports 3D printing, and only needs a layer of silicone on the electrode. The team claims that this technology can be integrated into solar panels, so the equipment can continue to generate electricity even in snow.
In fact, earlier there was also a hybrid solar panel that could obtain energy from the movement of raindrops. At present, the biggest problem of Snow TENG is the extremely low power density (0.2mW / ㎡).
Maher El-Kady and Richard Kaner (picture from: UCLA / Stuart Wolpert)
Although it is not possible to feed back to the power grid, it can at least provide emergency energy to difficult areas, such as powering small self-powered weather sensors. Senior research author Richard Kaner stated:
This can be a fairly intelligent device that tells you the current snowfall, wind direction, and wind speed. In addition, this technology is also suitable for other applications, such as sensors installed on the bottom of boots or snowboards to collect winter sports data.
Details of this research have been published in the recently published "Nano Energy" (Nano Energy) journal.
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