Can you think of any novel ways to generate renewable electricity...

[Zarostulus]

...that aren't the well-publicised and 'mainstream' technologies? For example, there's a dancefloor that uses kinetic energy from people dancing on it to power its light, which is pretty cool. What else can you think of to generate electricity using things we already have or do?

[Jemappelle]

I always thought of a similar things on motorways. I think a pilot was tested though and it was quite a flop. It does concern me about water vapour being let out from cooling towers. Surely all that heat energy could be captured in some way.

[JamesH]

[quote author=Jemappelle link=topic=194.msg535#msg535 date=1449158602] It does concern me about water vapour being let out from cooling towers. Surely all that heat energy could be captured in some way.
[/quote]

Surely the constant flow of upwards air could power a flat turbine mounted at the top of the towers? In addition, water going into the boil could pass through pipes here first, thus requiring less fuel to boil.

[St Rhenium]

[quote author=JamesH link=topic=194.msg540#msg540 date=1449159398]
Surely the constant flow of upwards air could power a flat turbine mounted at the top of the towers? In addition, water going into the boil could pass through pipes here first, thus requiring less fuel to boil.
[/quote]
That's so simple, yet so effective. I wonder how fast the air is rising in a cooling tower... it may be a considerable amount of renewable energy we could produce there.

[GemmaRowlands]

I think that gyms should have generators on their bikes and manual treadmills, as there must be some kind of energy that could come out of those! The majority of bikes are electric and have lots of programmes on, but there is a huge opportunity to change this around and create energy with the movement, instead.