Shots Across The Bow

Cheap electricity?

A new experiment has developed electric current from tapwater.

A team of Canadian researchers has found that an electrical current can be produced between the ends of a microscopic channel when a fluid flows through it.

The technique offers a potential source of clean, non-polluting electric power with a variety of possible uses, ranging from powering small electronic devices such as calculators or mobile phones to vast stations that can contribute to the national grid.

Unfortunately, the article does not detail the total power generated, and how it compares with the power required to force the water through the channels. It does say that water simply flowing through the filter will generate the electricity, so the process shouldn't take high powered pumps, but if it is no more efficient than a standard hydroelectric turbine, then it really isn't all that exciting.

Even if the discovery does not turn out to be a practical source of energy for generating electricity, it does show that we are still looking for, and more importantly finding, alternative energy sources.