Three technologies are envisaged to transform electricity vibration of industrial machinery.

Let’s mix in Rotterdam, London and soon New York nightclubs have opened avenues of dance that turned into electricity jitter dancers. They fed some of the spots and hope to reduce by 30% or 60%, their electricity bill. Preposterous idea of night owl? Not so sure. Research on energy recovery environment, both vibration and heat, have, in recent years, a craze for many industrial applications. The goal is simple: to transform the mechanical energy into electricity or heat, even if the power generated is minimal: a few microwatts (millionths of a watt) to a few tens of mill watts (thousandths of a watt). In any case, enough to power sensors (temperature, pressure, movement) which, therefore, become self-sufficient.

The applications of these microgenerateurs “are as diverse as the sources of vibration. In industry, for the control and maintenance, in the car, for example, to monitor tire pressure, in aeronautics, to monitor the wear wings and in the railway to ensure the logistics of cars but also to generate electricity from the escalators, platforms or floors of public spaces … and why not a day to power pacemakers from the movement of the body. Continue reading →