Sustainable turbulence

Fish gather together in shoals for more than safety in numbers: their bodies are able to extract kinetic energy from vortices and eddies created by objects in water or other fish.

This has led some researchers to investigate how these same processes could be reproduced in devices capable of generating electricity from turbulence in liquid flows (unlike in conventional turbines, for which turbulence is a hindrance), as described in this article.

An example: this project from Princeton.

This is interesting, beyond the issues of efficiency and renewable energy production – architectural skins could be reworked so as to use wind forces productively, instead of merely resisting them.

WIND PARK

coming back from the construction site a couple of days ago.
I had to stop and wonder around those giants.

electroactive polymers

This is fascinating: making an airship's surface contract and expand so as to enable it to "swim" through the atmosphere. These artificial muscles are made of polymers which deform when subjected to an electrical field.

Wikipedia entry for electroactive polymers

photovoltaic interlude, part IV

Little by little, more promising news regarding photovoltaics are appearing, such as breakthroughs in efficiency, and, hopefully more than just a P.R. move, Google going solar. (googleblog post here. these guys were involved)

photovoltaic interlude, part III

"Solar Cells for Cheap" is a quite interesting interview with Michael Grätzel (from EPFL) on what might happen soon (next couple of years) in the realm of photovoltaic systems.

photovoltaic interlude, part II

Expressways could be retrofitted with vast, overbearing tensile structures supporting photovoltaic materials, thus becoming distributed energy producers. Their spreading and implied connection with urban and industrial structures would help minimize the waste of energy that occurs with its transport from production to consumption sites, that here would almost coincide.

On energy, hydraulics and deviations - part IV

Wilson Bentley's beautiful images of snowflakes.

On energy, hydraulics and deviations - part III

Turbulence.

On energy, hydraulics and deviations - part II

Pruned has lots of good posts somehow dealing with this theme: this one, this one (alluvial valley), this one , and this account of a damn' good project - wave garden by Y. Obuchi.

On energy, hydraulics and deviations - part I

The work of Hans Jenny: emergent patterns within liquids affected by sound vibrations.

(a pity that this gets wrapped up in somewhat mystic blabber, but nothing's perfect)

photovoltaic interlude

Almost all prototypical research in the field of energy generation takes place outside the design world. Of course, it is more confortable to consider projects like Holographic Solar and spherical cells as exclusively technical endeavors (as if design could afford to remain detached from technique).

Could projects like these and these, promoted by, yes, the military, channel different attitudes from design's agencies and actors?