New scientist
June 10, 2011

GREEN power may no longer be as fickle as the weather, thanks to a device that can generate electricity in any conditions - be it sun, wind or rain.

Most forms of renewable energy are intermittent, says Elias Siores at the Institute for Materials Research and Innovation at the University of Bolton in the UK - the wind doesn't always blow and the skies aren't always cloud-free. "What we wanted was something that can take energy from different elements," he says.

So, together with his colleagues, Siores has done just that. First, he created 20-centimetre-long flexible ribbons made of a piezoelectric polymer that generates electrical currents when perturbed, either by wind or when rain drops fall on it. The team chose a polymer called polyvinylidene fluoride over ceramic piezoelectric materials because in wind tunnel tests and simulated rain it deformed more, creating higher peak voltages. That means more energy per rain drop or gust of wind, says Siores.
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