Honey, I Shrunk The Windmills! To The Size Of An Ant
One of the micro-windmills placed on a penny. UT Arlington
From KERA News Breakthroughs:
Commercial wind turbines stand more than a hundred feet tall, with blades nearly as long. The wind turbines developed by engineers at the University of Texas at Arlington are a bit smaller… just half than the size of an ant.
In a cold lab room at UT Arlington electrical engineering professor J.C. Chiao shows off a windmill. It’s mounted on a grain of white rice. The micro windmill is a tiny speck of metal with a rectangular base and three shiny blades the size of ant antenna.
“Just think about it this way,” Chiao says, “My interest and research focus is to shrink things.”
The windmills aren’t for a science fiction project. They’re meant to harvest wind energy and deliver small bursts of energy to compact devices like remote sensors or cell phones. Continue Reading
