5 Incredibly Unique Ways to Generate Electricity

These days, the world is obsessed with carbon footprints, electric cars, and energy independence. For the DIY-er looking to get off the grid or save a few bucks, unique ways to generate electricity has become the topic of the day.

In this article, we’ll take a look at five not-so-common ways to create energy.

1. Tears of Joy

It turns out that onions can power up much more than our tear ducts. Gill’s Onions in California was creating nearly 150 tons per day of ag waste in their operations. They had been returning the organic matter to the soil but the attraction of insects forced them to consider alternatives.

Gill built a system that converts onion juice to biogas, conditions it and converts it to electricity. They saved over a million dollars per year, and for the rest of us, it revealed another beautiful layer of the lowly onion. 

2. Two Impulsive Ways to Generate Electricity

Pelton turbines and Turgo turbines are both variations of a highly-efficient water impulse turbine. They harness the power of moving water, like a paddle wheel, except under higher pressure. Special “water buckets” harness most of the kinetic energy, turning a shaft, which generates electricity.

The Pelton turbine and its cousins are common in hydroelectric plants, but smaller “micro hydropower” units power up everything from electronic devices to large homes. 

3. Sunshine on My Shoulders

Solar power isn’t new, by any stretch, but no discussion of electricity alternatives is complete without solar. Brilliant ideas (see what we did there?) just keep coming. 

The endless ways to harness the sun directly to heat our homes and water are great, but the solar panels have all the power. Cool things like solar USB chargers, solar backpacks, and powered portable solar generators are what keep our gadget-addicted society happy.

4. The Electric Boogie

There’s a new way to light up the dance floor — piezoelectricity. It has been around forever, but what is it, exactly? 

In the most simple definition, the piezoelectric effect happens when certain crystals react to pressure, creating a small amount of AC current. The most common crystal with this characteristic is quartz.

Some common examples are quartz watches, lighters, speakers, fish finders, and that spark igniter on your gas grill. 

A really cool application of this is at a dance club in the Netherlands. At Club Watt in Rotterdam, dancers light up the floor with LEDs, which are powered by the piezoelectric crystals under their feet.

5. The Power of Poop

It’s no bull — methane gas is one of the most viable alternative electricity sources because of its efficiency. Unlike piezoelectricity, which only makes a small amount of power, methane gas makes a ton of power.

People have figured out several ways to create electricity from poo-power, but capturing direct-expelled bovine gases is another matter. In other words, researchers haven’t figured out how to collect all those cow farts yet.

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As long as there are people, there will always be a search for alternative ways to generate electricity. We are driven by our curiosity and limited only by our (sometimes weird) imaginations.

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