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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow: UCLA researchers designed a device that creates electricity from falling snow.
The first-of-its-kind machine also serves as a weather station, able to calculate the direction, volume
Stay on target
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow: UCLA researchers designed a device that creates electricity from falling snow.
The first-of-its-kind machine also serves as a weather station, able to calculate the direction, volume, and speed of precipitation and wind.
Small, thin, and flexible, the snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator (snow TENG) generates charge through static electricity, producing energy from the exchange of electrons.
Static electricity is created when a material that captures electrons meets a material that releases them.
In this case, snow in positively charged and gives up electrons. So scientists had to find the right negatively charged material with which to pair it.
“After testing a large number of materials, including aluminum foils and Teflon, we found that silicone produces more charge than any other material,” co-author Maher El-Kady, a UCLA assistant researcher of chemistry and biochemistry, said in a statement.
About 30 percent of Earth’s surface is blanketed in snow each winter, blocking sunlight and rendering solar panels ineffective. This new device, however, could be integrated into the solar array to provide a continuous power supply when it snows.
El-Kady & Co. also have high hopes for its integration into winter sports—to improve athletes’ performance—and imagine their invention ushering in a new generation of self-powered wearables.
3D printing and the high prevalence of silicone in the industry means the device could be produced at low cost, according to senior author and UCLA professor Richard Kaner.
Full details of the device were published in the journal Nano Energy.
Kaner and El-Kady previously designed a gadget that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, with the aim of powering electronics and creating hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars.
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