Electricity Out of Thin Air Could Be The Next Big Power Source
Electricity in the Air Geothermal, solar, vibration harvesting: step aside for hygroelectricity We're already making great strides at pulling electricity from the motion of the air and from the photons that stream through it, but what about pulling electric charges right out of the air itself? Researchers have solved a mystery about how electricity forms in the atmosphere, and in doing so may have found a way to pull electricity right out of the air. We know a lot about how to manipulate electricity, but the way it forms naturally in the atmosphere has long stymied scientists. But research unveiled today at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society has defined the mechanism by which water vapor in the air become charged, a discovery which could lead to devices capable of creating electricity from the atmosphere's own charges. For a long time, scientists though that water droplets adrift in the atmosphere...