Researchers at UC Berkeley are perfecting a technique that will allow clothing manufacturers to embed microscopic fibers that can produce electricity from simple body movements, such as hiking, walking or stretching. While it might take up to three years for clothing containing this technology to hit the shelves of your local GAP store, this new breakthrough technology offers us a great opportunity to reduce our electricity demands on local utilities and reduce our costs for charging all of our high-tech devices.  

These nano sized generators are constituted of micro-filaments that are similar to fishing line, extremely flexible, but are so small they can barely be seen with the human eye.  These ultra flexible fibers can withstand not only the laundry cycle, but are resistant to chemicals and heat.  And when they are woven into clothing fabric according to the researchers accounts “the fibers can soak up the untapped energy produced by the human body” and with even more vigorous motion in certain joints, additional energy is generated.  

This new fiber technology utilizes piezoelectricity, that allows you to produce energy through applied stress, similar to rubbing your hands together to keep warm.  While the dream of producing energy from tiny components has been a far off dream for many scientists, the research team at Berkeley has developed an innovative way to effectively solve this problem.

While this technology is not yet available,  I love to read and learn more about innovative research and development, but only wish we had the funding through loans, grants and subsidies, to inspire and enable more creative and innovative minds the opportunity to design, create, and implement new products to compete in a new market that can create jobs in the green sector as well as revive our economy.  

I welcome your thoughts, comments and feedback on my post.  I would love to engage thought leaders in evolving technologies to offer us insight and education on new developments in alternative energy projects.