Power from Two Energy Sources?

Alternative sources of energy are clean and green but the catch is they generate less energy compared to fossil fuels. So now the scientists are trying to use different sources of alternative energy at the same place and same time to generate power. Attempts are being made to combine two forms of external energy sources such as light and heat or light and vibration to generate external energy so that enough energy can be collected for practical use. Fujitsu Laboratories have now succeeded in using hybrid energy sources to generate power. Fujitsu Laboratories wants to provide this technology for commercial use by the year 2015.

Fujitsu Laboratories: Making power from two sources of energy
Fujitsu Laboratories are working extensively in this regard, and to generate electricity both from heat and light, they are creating a new hybrid energy harvesting device. Energy harvesting is the procedure used in accumulating energy from the environment. Later on that energy is transformed into electricity. Fujitsu is not doing something innovative. Work in this field was done by scientists earlier too. But hybrid energy could only be generated by combining separate devices and that proved costly so it was commercially unviable.

Reducing the cost
Now Fujitsu laboratories confirm that two separate devices are not needed to generate electricity from a hybrid source. How were they successful in reducing costs? They used organic materials for creating hybrid device. This lowers the cost, and the new technology is showing promise to convert energy from the environment to electricity. The device from Fujitsu Laboratories is just a one-piece device that catches energy from the most common form of energy available for large scale use.

The use of organic material
An organic material of high efficiency that can generate power from both photovoltaic and thermoelectric mode has been developed by Fujitsu Laboratories. This organic material can make power both from heat in thermoelectric mode and indoor lighting in photovoltaic mode. The production cost is very low because of the organic materials and the processing costs are very low. The device can be made to work as a thermoelectric generator or photovoltaic cell by changing the electrical circuit connecting P-type and N-type semiconductors.

Advantages of the technology

It helps to get energy from two different sources by using one device.The technology enables the use of alternative energy and sensors in the areas, where till now it was forbidden. It can now power medical sensing technology and sensor networks. It can sensor those monitors without any battery or electric wire that are used to check conditions like, heartbeats, body temperature and blood pressure.There is no need for battery or electric wire.Because this technology is not costly, it can be widely used.This technology is a very efficient way of gathering energy from external sources.Since the device works with the help of both heat and light, it will continue to work if one of these energy sources remains unavailable.It can work in remote areas.It can help to forecast environmental conditions.

For Fujitsu Laboratories, combining two different sources of generating energy to produce power is just the beginning. They want to make this technology more efficient so that by combining two sources of producing energy, hybrid equipment can be made to work better.

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