A 27-year-old designer has created an ingenious new way of generating wind power in London – and it is done using the infrastructure that already exists.
Charlotte Slingsby is the mastermind behind Moya Power: a startup that uses cloth-like material to generate electricity from the wind that comes off of subways and trains.
As the cars speed through the stations, the textiles’ motion caused by the resulting gusts of wind accumulates electricity.
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While the electric yield of the sheeting material is relatively low compared to that of turbines and wind farms, the textiles can blend into urban environments and utilize space more efficiently.
Slingsby, who studied design and engineering at Imperial College and the Royal College of Art, has already installed a pilot set of Moya Power textiles along the London Crossway routes, according to WIRED.
“If we all live in cities that need electricity, we need to look for new, creative ways to generate it,” says Slingsby. “I wanted to create something that works in different situations and that can be flexibly adapted, whether you live in an urban hut or a high-rise.”
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