Emerging Trends for Future Power Generation

The human population is growing at a very fast pace and the energy requirement is increased in a threefold way as more resources are needed to fulfill the demands of the people. The non-renewable energy resources are not easily replenished within a human timescale, there is a lot of pressure on these resources because of the easy availability of these resources. The renewable resource is a very good option to choose, considering the fewer levels of pollution caused by them. Some of the researchers are working on these technologies to efficiently power the increasing needs of the society.

In this article, we go through some of the most unusual energy resources that are game changers towards traditional energy resources and can power small electrical equipment as well as big industries.

• Na-TECC(Sodium Thermo Electric Chemical Converter): This technology is developed by Shannon Yee, it leverages the isothermal expansion of sodium and directly converts the solar heat into electricity. In this technology, the goal is to reach more than 45% heat to electricity conversion when compared to the old solar panels.
• Betavoltaics: This research is being funded by DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Academy) with the support of Stanford University. In this technology, high energy electrons that are emitted from the nuclear waste is being used as a source to power devices known as betavoltaics.
• Flexible Generators: In this technology, plastics and polymers are being redesigned in such a way so that they can generate electricity without the use of moving parts. These thermoelectric generators are made from inorganic semiconductor material.
• Recycling of Radio Waves: This technology was developed by Manos Tentzeris, they developed an electromagnetic energy harvester that can absorb energy from the radio frequency spectrum and can power small devices such as wearable devices, smart city sensors, IOT(Internet of Things) devices.
• Energy from the Pulp: At Georgia Technology Institute, the paper waste is being used to develop products such as the Organic Light Emitting Diodes(OLED), Organic solar cells, etc. These devices are used in mobile touchscreens, TV Screens, and solar panels etc.
• New Generation Power Plants: A complete makeover of power plants is being made so that the power plants can work at an efficiency level of 100%. In one of the researchers, the steam that is generated in a power plant is being replaced with supercritical carbon dioxide(SCOO2) which can run the turbines and can produce electricity.

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