Scratch Pad – Store the ‘Waste’ Energy

I have written earlier about wind energy, the usefulness and the disadvantages. But one thought has troubled me for long, isn’t that the energy that we derive from wind is a cost to the ecology. Whatever efficiency we consider for wind turbines, still we are absorbing the energy from the winds and reducing their power. This wind power should definitely have some role to play in the ecology for e.g. monsoons in India is a result of Wind. I am not saying that if we build a lot of wind power stations then monsoons will stop but definitely we are reducing the power of winds that has some role to play in the ecology. The point I am trying to make is that we should be proactive and should start thinking of possibilities of storing the energy that gets dissipated in our daily course of actions.

During one of my recent air journey I realised that when the airplane touch down on airstrip and apply brake to stop, it surely dissipates a lot of energy. With a touchdown speed of 250km/hr and weight in the range of tonnes, the brake surely dissipates a lot of energy to decelerate the airplane. Instead of just exhausting it by applying brakes can we devise some method to store that energy?

If you have seen the way a fighter jet takes off from an aircraft carrier, there is a hydraulic piston that provides the much required speed for takeoff in minimum distance. Same is seen when a fighter jet lands on a aircraft carrier, a rope is used to quickly slow it down. Can we replicate this phenomenon? I want to say that when an airplane touchdown it should store its energy in some high tension spring/coil that can be stored. Remember the toy cars that we have used during childhood days, when we push it back and release it, it speedily moves ahead, while pushing it back we store a lot of energy in a metal coil placed inside the car. I am hoping of similar technique here. Yes, all of it does have a aspect of safety as the touchdown is itself risky but then if fighter jet can do it, the same may be possible with civilian aircrafts with required modification.It’s not just aircraft, think of driving your car, think of the same toy car here, and when you apply brake let the energy get stored in some metal coil inside the car. The same energy can be released by some push button whenever required; it will surely save some fuel. One can think of all other forms of energy that we knowingly or unknowingly dissipate and if something can be done to store/conserve that energy then I call this being truly proactive.