“Imagine a future world in which clean electricity is available anywhere you go. The generic Air-gen effect means that this future world can become a reality.”

— Jun Yao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering

One of my favorite experiences in life is to stumble onto amazing work by others. Of the many interests, energy is at or near the top of my list. The very idea of simply collecting electricity utilizing humidity in ambient air sends the imagination into a geeks playground.

So, what is “Hygroelectrical Power” anyway?

First, the discovery. A student team of engineers at University of Massachusetts Amherst were exploring humidity sensors using novel materials. A student left one of the subject devices unplugged. At that point, the team discovered that, even unplugged, the device was generating a measurable current. After some investigation, it was determined that the experimental sensing device was generating power from the ambient humidity as a consequence of the material used.

In this case, researchers are still exploring the details and don’t truly understand, in absolute terms, what is happening. One working theory is that the material (a bio film about 1/1000th the diameter of a human hair) is porous. Those pores cross this material in a roughly tapered fashion creating a gradient.

The idea of extracting energy from air isn’t really new. Nicola tesla did it; though not from humidity. He collected free electrons using his cosmic ray circuitry. Not really a practical approach. That and it isn’t truly Hygroelectric.

Hygroelectricity definition.

Hygroelectricity: A type of static electricity that forms on water droplets in the air and can be transferred to small dust particles or other surfaces. This phenomenon is common in the Earth’s atmosphere and has been observed in various environments, including:

• Steam escaping from boilers (Armstrong effect)
• Thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, and dust storms, which can generate lightning
• Ambient air, where researchers have developed devices to harness this energy

Another possibility then is that electrons are transferred from water molecules as a result of contact with the walls of the porous material used in the humidity sensor.

But this is future stuff

We can imagine the tech is currently prohibitively expensive and it is. A company in Portugal, CascataChuva, has been working on Hygroelectric concepts since 2012 and are currently working on making this tech available to the public. How much do we expect this to cost a home owner you ask? Well, according to YouTube channel, Undecided with Matt Ferrell, a 10KWh device (suitable for full time use in a ~1600 sq/ft home) would cost around $19,000. This is comparable to the current cost of solar at ~$20,000 after government incentives. The target date for getting a device to market was 2024, but CascataChuva designs have yet to be peer reviewed.

The vision is to provide a washing machine sized device that will provide for all power needs of a home in a small footprint. As one who believes that a centralized power distribution system as we have all over the world is a security risk, this vision is huge and game changing.