World's Youngest Thermoelectric Generator experimenters from Delta, BC, Canada exploit (non-fossil-fuel) renewable energy for Sustainability

2006-10-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

These young scientists enrolled in a Silbury School after-school workshop engaged in a contest to produce the highest possible energy from a Thermo Electric Generator (TEG) in Delta, BC, Canada. TEG technology is usually limited to post-graduate university students. These are probably the youngest group of students to have hands-on experiments on an unusual source of free energy, called the Seebeck Effect.

Thermoelectric generators can produce over 300 watts from the wasted heat of an automobile's muffler -- that is equivalent to 12 headlights' power usage. Did you know that 49% of a car's energy just goes out its tailpipe as heat? TEGs work when the sun isn't shining, too, unlike photovoltaic (solar) panels. TEGs are an emerging source of energy, unlike the better-known wind and solar energy systems.

These Silbury School students are aware that fossil-based fuels are running out, and that wars are fought over petroleum; when you fill up your gasoline tank, think about the people who have died for your fillup, including oil rig workers who face health problems from work.

Other experiments conducted during this workshop included molecular energy produced by tap water (this was not a lemon-acid-battery device) and locating electromagnetic energy fields, another form of future energy that has not yet been exploited, although EMFs have been proposed for space travel. They also had laughs: Kid-powered calculators, zapping Einstein games, brain-teasing IQ tower game, and their homework: How to make an walking robot insect walk through "air" while suspended upside down. Stay tuned. Some Silbury School kids have learned how to do the nearly-impossible. Including reviving non-rechargeable batteries.

This workshop was presented by Rob Matthies of Solar Powered Roadshow. For more information contact Rob, phone 7 3 9 - 7 7 1 7 in Vancouver, BC.

Kids' Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) workshop

World's Youngest Thermoelectric Generator experimenters from Delta, BC, Canada exploit (non-fossil-fuel) renewable energy for Sustainability