Image Source: Graphic / MIT School of Architecture and Planning

You’ve probably never considered crowds to be a renewable source of energy. Lucky for us, two smarty-pants grad students at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning are trying to figure it out.

James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk envision harvesting the mechanical energy from human movement – like commuters in a train station or fans at a rock concert – for electricity. This “crowd farm” would be a responsive sub-flooring system and made up of blocks that depress slightly when people step on them. When the blocks slip against each other they would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current.

Crowds of people at a train station aren’t going to be enough to power the train itself: Graham and Jusczyk explain that thousands of people would be needed to make up the 28,527 steps needed to power a moving train for one second. But for smaller, very energy-efficient devices, the students’ idea could lead to something bigger: Their test case included a prototype stool that used the act of sitting to generate power. The weight of the body on the seat causes a flywheel to spin, which powers a dynamo that lights four LEDs (super-efficient lightbulbs).

The architecture students ultimately want an energy supply that’s integrated into a new sort of building system, one that harnesses the active power of humans to power a cleaner, more efficient lifestyle in the 21st century.

MIT News

Many of us have heard of geothermal power, when electricity is made from the earth’s heat using the steam from deep underground to drive a turbine and make electricity. In this country, most geothermal energy is made in the western states, but a new technology could make it more widely available.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) is defined by the Department of Energy (DOE) as engineered reservoirs that can produce energy from geothermal resources that don’t have enough water or permeability in the rocks to make them economical otherwise. In essence, the technology drills deep underground – 10,000 to 30,000 feet - and “stimulates” the earth to get more energy from it.

A new report by scientists and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looked at the feasibility and economics of moving EGS onto the market and establishing it as a major source of power by 2050.

Major conclusions of the report include:

• EGS has the potential to supply the U.S. with all of its electricity needs.

• The environmental impact is limited because most of the work happens underground, the surface equipment is compact, and transportation costs and associated pollution are limited because of the resource's wide availability. However, the report does note that EGS runs a “manageable” risk of contaminating the groundwater and impacting seismic activity with its drilling.

• With “reasonable” investment in research and development, EGS could supply the country with 100,000 MW of electricity by 2050, at competitive rates.

Because of the time needed to get a commercial-scale prototype up and running, the MIT panel recommended that the U.S. start funding enhanced geothermal systems in the immediate future.

Daily Kos
U.S. Department of Energy
MIT: The Future of Geothermal Energy