Getting Somewhere With Flying Fish

In Canada, transportation accounts for a full 36 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions. Cars, trucks, airplanes and freight trains — they all take Canadians and Canadian goods where they need to go, and almost all consume some form of refined petroleum, which is responsible for 49 per cent of Canada’s emissions.

But there are unconventional ideas on the horizon that could change the way we move around, from natural gas-powered vehicles to jet engines powered by garbage. But some of the future’s vehicles are bound to be weirder than others.

Take, for example, a flying fish being developed by Swiss scientists. Built to mimic the contraction of muscle tissue, this floating, fish-like dirigible would be capable of moving through the air without the aid of a propeller, or the heavy mechanical components of an engine. Quiet and manoeuvrable, it uses electrodes installed along the polymer that makes up the fish’s “skin” to attract one side to the other. The result: a gentle, swimming motion.

At the moment, the 8-metre prototype is only able to move at a slow walking speed, and there are serious real-world considerations of to be taken into account, like sudden winds or other inclement weather. But there’s definite potential in any design that can reduce air and noise pollution at the same time.

The trout-like airship also isn’t the only prototype to suggest an entirely different approach to motion in the vehicles we’re already used to seeing. Kinetic road plates are already being used to capture the impact of passing cars to generate electricity, and vehicles like smart bikes and so-called EcoCabs are adding human locomotion to the power of an electric engine.

While the world waits for its skies to fill with enormous airborne fish to carry us away, though,  Canadians already have a broad selection of fuel efficient cars to improve the way they get around. But now that you know that the future has flying fish in it,  it might be a little harder to get excited about excellent fuel mileage.

Would a trout have a higher km/l ratio than a salmon? Only the future will tell.

Image: IOP/EMPA

Drive-through energy

The bad news: the Whopper is still bad for you. The good news? All that kinetic energy going to waste when you pull your car through the drive-thru window will be put to good use.

At least, it will be at a Burger King in New Jersey. They’re experimenting with speed bumps that could actually harness enough energy to power half a million homes. Company officials say the energy collected could be routed right into the power grid.

Using a regenerative technology similar to that used in hybrid cars, metal plates in speed bumps are pushed down as a car drives over them. The movement of these plates can create kinetic energy, which translates to as much as 30 kilowatts per hour.

While this doesn’t exactly offset the emissions from either the cars or cows involved, it’s a step in the right experimental direction. The company who developed this prototype, New Energy Technologies, is eager to apply it to busy intersections, toll booths, and any number of other places that cars drive.

In the UK, tests are already underway with similar technology in supermarket parking lots and residential speed bumps. The collected energy is used to power nearby traffic and street lights, but could also be stored or fed into the local power grid.

Some have criticized Burger King for attempting to “greenwash” an unhealthy and ecologically unfriendly habit.  But if people are driving their cars for a quick burger anyway, generating electricity from that is still bonus. Provided, of course, you don’t look the gift cow in the mouth.

Kinetic road plates

CHARGE! 

It’s every woman’s dream come true: saving the planet while you shop. 

And the best part is you won’t even need to open your wallet. In fact, you won’t even need to go into the store: renewable energy is now as close as the parking lot. 

Okay…so it’s not Tiffany’s, but Sainsbury’s, a British supermarket chain, is the first in Europe to install “kinetic road plates,” a clever invention which will power the store’s cash registers just by having vehicles drive over them.  

The plates look a lot like speed bumps (more like ‘green bumps’). The kinetic plates give under the weight of the vehicles, causing it to rock slightly and send a message to a generator to power up. 

Though all that rocking may make it seem like you are on a Disney ride instead of at the Supermarket, the inventors claim that the driver won’t even feel the difference. The generators then create energy which is captured, redirected back to the store and used to power the checkouts and the store’s other needs.

The kinetic road plates are just one of the planet-saving measures which the chain is employing: the store’s solar panels will heat up 100% of the hot water during summer months; rainwater will be used to flush all of their toilets and the lights will be on automatic dimmer switches so on bright, sunny days, less electricity will be used.

Sustainable shopping: making the planet, its women…and their husbands…happy.

Energy generation gets a dose of cool

Energy innovations can be found in the strangest of places.  Even at Da Club.

Anyone who’s even been in the groove (or whatever the kids are saying these days) on the dance floor has probably felt it. The feeling that you could dance all night long. That you had energy to burn. 

Energy to burn? Why should it go to waste?

That’s the thinking behind the funky energy-generating dance floor. It works by converting the kinetic energy of dance into electricity. The design principle is quite simple. The dance floor is made to ‘bounce’ under the always moving and grooving weight of the dancers. Underneath, the floor is hooked up to power-generating blocks that convert the kinetic energy into electricity, which is fed into batteries.

The batteries are (more or less) constantly charged. The idea is the energy generated is then used to power parts of the nightclub. Perhaps generating enough energy to offset club lighting or power an extra disco ball. They still make those, right?

Sound futuristic?   An energy-generating dance floor was debuted in 2006 at the aptly-named Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam.  It’s a club that thinks big about sustainability. They envision toilets that flush with rain water, walls that change colour in reaction to temperature changes, a rooftop garden, “biological beer,” and other elements that combine to create a sustainable clubbing environment.  

Groovy.