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To create this series of photographs for La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos I have been inspired by the studies that are being carried out to generate clean energy practically from nothing: the so-called mysterious hygroelectricity.
As in other discoveries, sometimes observation and a little luck make us move forward. Professor Jun Yao of UMass Amberst was working on an air humidity sensor when a student forgot to plug it in and Yao noticed that both the microscopic tubes and nanowires continued to produce a signal. weak electrical.
That left him intrigued and was the beginning of his research, to the point that, at the beginning of 2020, UMass exhibited a device that used a natural protein to produce electricity from air humidity.
Subsequently, a European project managed to collect the tiny charges of static electricity contained in water vapor in the atmosphere to expand clean energy options.
This is the CATCHER project, which aims to create “an innovative renewable energy conversion technology.” Building on previous work that “successfully established the feasibility of converting atmospheric moisture into electricity,” the European Innovation Council funded this research to develop this innovative concept.
This revolutionary technology “represents a completely new renewable energy source.” Hygroelectricity or hygroelectric energy is an intriguing concept that refers to the generation of electricity from humidity or variation in environmental humidity.
How is it possible? Well, the key to this technology lies in hygroelectric materials, which have the ability to generate an electrical charge in response to changes in the humidity of the environment.
