Countries in Europe are leading the situation of developing alternative-energy from the nature, and their goal is to achieve a renewable energy in the final energy consumption up to 20% by 2020, which has appeared around 8.5% in 2005.
Alternative energy sources that are developed in many countries are Wind energy, Hydraulic energy, Geothermal energy, Solar energy, and Biomass energy. Those energies were gained most affectively, when considering about specific features of the local environment.
My very first research has begun with solar energy, which became a very friendly term among the industrial designers with many concepts of product. My first idea was to grow a farm that harvests energy with solar panels. It seemed to become a great concept, but solar farms were already existed, and currently in progress to generate electricity. Solar farms are raised in areas where it gets most sunlight than others such as deserts of North Africa, California, Florida, and areas in Spain. Famous entrepreneur Fabio Rosa also has planted solar panels in rural areas of Brazil to provide low cost of electricity for local farmers, and brought a solution for a problem that many farmers in rural areas are moving out to city.
My approach is to research/find what would be the most affective local energy source in an urban city area, specifically in a New York City. New York City is a compacted area with people and artifacts such as building, car, and others. The city is full with wasted energies that are created from people and artifacts such as heat, movement, sound, and electromagnetic wave from phone antenna and other RF wave sources. My belief is that all of those wasted energies around us could be recycled to useable energy like electricity, and some of them are already in progress to develop by companies.
- Sound created from people, cars, machines, and others
- Mechanical-energy from foot traffic and car passing on the road
- Electromagnetic wave energy from phone antenna or other RF wave sources
- Mechanical-energy from foot traffic and car passing on the road
- Electromagnetic wave energy from phone antenna or other RF wave sources
My research is focusing on above three energy sources, and design approaches to create renewable energy from people or artifacts that can be re-used for the people and the city’s major problem. Therefore, a function of the product is to collect the energies, and convert it to use for the problems in the city. 
2 comments:
might be an interesting watch for you.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090914-solar-video-ap.html
Wow. J I think we're thinking very similarly. I was also looking at New York City as an energy haven- people walking, talking, running, driving, etc. All of it goes to waste. It'd be great to find a way to harvest all of it... and with 8 million people in the city, this could be extraordinary.
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