Nikola Tesla was under-appreciated in his time, often eclipsed by his greedier and more business-savvy contemporaries. Tesla believed that electricity should be free and available to everyone in the world, and his wireless transmitter tower was supposed to make that happen. His Wardenclyffe Tower, a planetary energy transmitter, was meant to be a proof of his concept, but it was never fully operational before it was demolished in 1917. Now, two Russian physicists want to resurrect the Tesla dream.

Sergey Plekhanov and Leonid Plekhanov have studied Tesla’s research extensively and believe that, with modern materials and technology, the genius inventor’s energy transmission tower can be built and successfully operated. In short, the system works by harnessing the Earth’s inherent electrical conduction properties and distributing energy through the ground and the ionosphere. There are plenty of renewable energy resources already being utilized, but the lingering problem is distribution. Tesla’s proposed network of towers addresses that by using the planet itself to distribute the energy without the use of unsightly, expensive and dangerous wires.

The Russian researchers have spent five years studying Tesla’s notes, patents, and published works. They are confident now that they can recreate the iconic historical device, but with a greater degree of success than Tesla ever achieved in his lifetime. They have taken to crowdfunding on Indiegogo to raise a very ambitious $800,000. The money, according to the physicists, will help them prove once and for all that Tesla was right. Limitless clean energy is not only possible – it’s all around us every moment of every day and being wasted until someone harnesses it and distributes it with Tesla’s ingenious invention.

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Music is the universal language, and in the case of an instrument called SPARK, it could also be a lifesaver. SPARK, invented by Royal College of Art graduate Diana Simpson Hernandez and promoted by percussionist Sudha Kheterpal, is a percussion shaker that creates electricity as it creates music.

In developing countries like Kenya where up to 75% of the population has no access to electricity, kerosene lamps are often used for nighttime lighting. These lamps are deadly, causing 12,000 deaths per year in Kenya alone. But without them, schoolchildren have no way to do their homework or read.

The SPARK contains a copper coil with a magnet inside that moves back and forth as the SPARK is shaken. The motion gathers electricity which is stored in a rechargeable battery, allowing owners to jam in the daylight to save up enough electricity to light their homes at night. The SPARK happens to make a lovely sound when shaken, so it makes a great addition to a formal or impromptu musical gathering.

A USB light can be operated from the SPARK’s stored energy. This can provide precious time to read or do schoolwork at home. The SPARK can also be used to charge mobile phones, a service that is typically only available to Kenyans for a charge from street vendors.

The project’s Kickstarter campaign is an impassioned plea to bring a much-needed source of clean energy to developing nations. Because learning the inner workings of the tool is just as important as using it, the SPARK will be manufactured and distributed as an assembly kit. After testing the SPARK in several Kenyan villages, Kheterpal has discovered that the technology would make a huge positive difference in the lives of its users. Contribute at least £150 to the Kickstarter campaign to get your hands on one of the very first SPARK kits to be produced.

The post Instrument Sparks Love of Music + Brings Power to Homes first appeared on Gajitz.

Using the earth to harness energy is no new business, but we’ve come a long way from the windmill or water wheel. Aquatic energy company Minestro has revealed an interesting new system to create green energy using the ocean’s currents.

Dubbed “Deep Green,” the project features a squad of giant propeller-like objects that “[convert] energy from tidal stream flows into electricity,” according to the company’s website. The devices are wings with turbines connected and are anchored to the sea floor. As the aquatic current flows by them, energy is created by “novel principle” – the same concept behind classic inventions like the windmill.

Initial trials of the system were performed off the coast of Northern Ireland. Minestro plans to have a bigger version of Deep Green going in the UK by 2015, in hopes that it becomes a fully-viable source of green energy.

The post Current Energy: Power-Generating Propellers for Oceans first appeared on Gajitz.

A gigantic tower like the one above could soon be constructed in southwestern Arizona to provide the area with clean, green wind energy – and you won’t believe how simple the mechanism is. The top mouth of the tower is sprayed with a cool water mist, cooling the air outside of the tower and forcing it down into the bottom of the tower at speeds around 50 MPH. This artificially-created wind turns turbines, generating electricity.

It isn’t easy to tell from the renderings, but the proposed tower is meant to be the new biggest structure on earth. If completed as planned, it would be 1200 meters high…or around 4,000 feet. In comparison, the world’s current tallest structure, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, is 828 meters or 2717 feet tall. It will be effectively dwarfed by the truly mammoth downdraft tower.

The company planning to construct the tower is Clean Wind Energy, Inc., and they aren’t just talking in hypotheticals. They have already gotten zoning approval for the project and leased the land near San Luis, Arizona. Who knows – maybe massive energy towers like this could be the wind turbine farm of the future.

The post Massive Wind Energy Tower Planned for Southwest Arizona first appeared on Gajitz.

On a bad day, the rush of wind from a train in a subway station can cause endless worries about the state of our hair. On a good day, it can feel almost refreshing. But on any kind of day at all, this totally novel concept could harness the power of that wind and turn it into electricity.

The Charger Sofa concept from designer Tao Ma makes good use of the powerful gusts that rush through subway stations over and over every day. As the wind rushes over the platform, it would spin fans on either end of the Sofa, which would turn to translate kinetic energy into electricity that would be stored in the seat’s internal batteries.

Passengers waiting for trains would then be able to utilize this power by having a seat and plugging in their phones. Several different types of connectors would be hidden among the plants on the back portion of the Charger Sofa, allowing passengers to simply sit down and pull out the charger that fits. According to the designer, the 5-10 minutes that one might spend waiting on the platform is enough time to give a mobile device just the boost that it needs before the next leg of a journey.

The post Powerful Breeze: Subway Seat Tops up Mobile Phones first appeared on Gajitz.