Wind panels?

Very tough times are coming for electric companies because renewable energy came to the game. Every year more and more people are talking about this source of electricity and heat, especially when climate is changing. Government is also trying to convince everyone to use renewable energy and does it by giving grants for installing equipment and even paying for generated and used electricity! This is still not enough as nowadays renewable energy technology is very expensive but new generation and new ideas are coming. Very impressive and promising is Keon Jae Lee from The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology work on piezoelectrics nanocomposite materials (material generating electricity from applied mechanical work like wind or waves). He and his team managed to increase critical limits by mixing piezoelectric nanoparticles with carbon-based nanomaterials. Those critical restrictions are: expensiveness, inability to create big scale samples and difficult way of manufacturing. Let's dream a bit how world can change right now. This technology allows changing existing house into off-grid house (house which doesn't take anything from main electricity or gas suppliers) very easily, you just need to cover the house with piezoelectric's panels (yes, not solar panels!). On the roof they would have a huge advantage against solar panels as it can generate electricity during the night and even winter (which is the biggest disadvantage of solar energy). Panels on the sides of the house could use huge amounts of wind power as it hits them perpendicularly and a lot of energy could be transferred. But this is not enough as it could also use sound waves coming from cars. Finally living close to very busy streets would pay back. Another option is to use piezoelectrics in asphalt. Just imagine you are going somewhere and generating electricity at the same time. So if you have electric car, you leave house with full battery and get to destination without discharging. It is possible to continue and continue talking about how big revolution could be made with this technology, but sadly posts have limits.

Check this for more details: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/tkai-pgt050712.php