An african inventor, Cedrick Ngalande, has invented a device called the Green Erg, that could harness the pulling force of a person or moving vehicle, and convert some of it into electricity. Though I don’t see his invention any soon on any European or US market, it seems some say that it will have a great success in Africa, there where you have to make electricity out of anything.
The device consists of two rubber-covered rollers, having dynamos inside. You are tied up to the rollers like you tie up a horse to his cart, and keep walking. While you walk, the dynamos generate up to 2W of electricity, enough to power a cell phone or a radio.
“This is basically a dynamo which is being driven as a result of friction between the ground and the blocks. The small yellowish blocks (these are covered by rubber in the real commercial product) rotate as you pull it.
They are designed to rotate even on bumpy run even roads. We have tested it on moist lawn and have worked. It is very smooth so much that you basically don’t feel any disturbance as you move along.
At normal walking speeds we have gotten more than 2 watts which is more than enough for running cell phones or radios. I envision that people will attach this to themselves and walk with it – or even attach it to an ox-cart, a skating board, bike, etc.”
Usefulness: this could, indeed, produce electricity, but if the above-mentioned person, a poor guy from Uganda or Zimbabwe, would posess a cell phone, wouldn’t he have the money to buy something more easy to use? Would he sacrifice himself just to power a device he wouldn’t normally need? I’m not being mean here, but as far as I know, solar cells are much prettier than this – even if the thing works.
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4047 total comments so far. What's your opinion ?
"that’s 2 X (303,824,640)= 607649280 watt’s a day! that’s a nice chunk in our 3.816 Trillion KWH usage!" why would each person generate 2W per day? you can't just make up numbers. (BTW a watt is a unit of power, that is how quickly energy is transfered, not energy itself)but if you are correct this will generate 168.8 KWH per average second walked in the nation. if you say 1 mile (giving 20 mins of walking time) then that is (60 * 20 * 168.8) 202,560 KWH a day (202,560 * 365) / (3.816 * 10 ^ 12) = 1.937 * 10 ^ -5 comming to 0.001937% of the power used in the US assuming 100% efficency in transfer.
I see it usefull only when you are in a desperate situation and you have no other power source to do something critical. For example: sending an S.O.S. message.
Also good for people on treadmills, and out for morning walks and jogs - maybe even walking the dog.
I see a use for this! Attach rollers to shoes and generate electricity via rollerblading or skate boards! Even the kids shoes with only 2 wheels. Charge up a battery going where ever you need to go, plug charged cell into house and let the grid drain it adding to the grid. 303,824,640 in the U.S, if they walk 1 mile with this device, or rollerblade, that's 2 X (303,824,640)= 607649280 watt's a day! that's a nice chunk in our 3.816 Trillion KWH usage!
Stupid-brilliant beauty will one day save us all. Besides, who really knows how much energy the human body is capable of releasing?
