That battery you're throwing away may not have enough energy left to power your gadgetry, but it does have enough juice to light up a low-energy LED. That's the driving idea behind South Korean designer Sung Woo Park's conceptual Energy Seed, a stylish street lamp powered entirely by discarded batteries.
Drop a battery into one of the Energy Seed's disposal holes and it'll fall down into a tube. Several batteries can be stacked one on top of the other, daisy-chaining drained batteries into a long-lasting power supply for an LED lamp that will give pedestrians a bit of light on the sidewalk. It's a great way to re-appropriate trash that we'd otherwise consider useless.
Check out the gallery below for more of Sung Woo Park's Energy Seed.
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Sung Woo Park, via Fubiz
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By CoolProducts at 5:08 PM ON 10/10/08
This really is interesting and I'd love to see other products with similar designs for home use.
By GIJOOOOOE at 1:29 AM ON 10/11/08
It's quite a unique and practical idea in theory, but really, putting these in any major city and how long before all those little holes are stuffed with trash and gum?
By GreenOfaKind at 9:56 AM ON 10/11/08
I like it - way to activate a neighborhood with a need. Though the streets will already have lights for safety provided by the city as these are not dependable for that. I like the notion of a central collection, though. A street dedicated to the environment with a curb-side collection is a great way to bring a community/neighborhood together and raise awareness.
By Steve at 6:33 PM ON 10/11/08
This is an interesting idea but its not very practical. It doesnt have nearly enough capacity for batteries. And how many people are going to throw one or two batteries away at a time. Its more like if someone was going to recycle batteries they are not going to recycle one or two batteries at a time, they are goin to recycle in numbers and that is why I dont think that this is very feasible. But I do like the idea however, it just needs more thought and more applications to make it worth it.
By michalob18 at 8:06 AM ON 10/13/08
This is ultra practical just not as a major light source or a solution for millions of people. It is a start however and I could think of one hundred ways that you could re-design this intention into something that could be used as major light and have a capacity or frequency high enough to support massive populations. Awesome invention/ innovation. I never thought to harness energy in this way.
By Sun at 9:31 AM ON 10/13/08
BRILLIANT!
By BeeBright at 9:49 AM ON 10/13/08
I Think its a great idea, and for home use as in little walk and garden lights.
By Lars at 9:55 AM ON 10/13/08
Nice idea, but completely unfeasible.
By Nicholas at 10:09 AM ON 10/13/08
Pretty interesting. I'm always pro ecology - green stuff :)
Nicholas
By angela at 10:37 AM ON 10/13/08
Great idea, I don't think it is feasible for street lights, but I think it would be an awesome idea for the home. Then you don't have to take the batteries out of your home to use the lamp.
By leila at 10:43 AM ON 10/13/08
interesting idea but like other posters said i'm not sure how practical it could be used in major metropolitan areas. the holes where you place the batteries in would probably get filled with all sorts of debris. and who exactly is this scavenger that would collect the batteries once the light has died down? it is a cool concept and i'm all for these types of innovative ideas but it needs more thought into it in order for it to be feasible
By randomenough at 2:11 PM ON 10/13/08
The seed of an idea. This is outdoors? Where the rain will be filling up those holes for the batteries? It's a good starting point for other ideas about making recycling convienient and fun. And, yes, it is surprising how much energy is left in tossed batteries. I collect old AAA's from coworkers and use them in my Bose headphones. They go and go in a low power device. I never buy AAA's myself. When I've used them up they are completely gone. Then I drop that single battery in the recycle box. The one I made myself for old batteries here at work.
By macpower at 3:17 PM ON 10/15/08
Take that and the joule thief circuit outlined on http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Joule-Thief/ and it doesn't seem all that crazy of an idea. I've made a number of joule thieves myself and I have to say that this is the way to conserve. My kids have night lights that run for days on batteries that my digital camera say are dead. And if you're concerned about gum and cigarette butts, make the holes little trapdoors. Hell, you could put a tiny solar panel on top of the thing to protect it from elements and recharge a little. We have to start thinking outside the box if we're going to survive the next 100 years.
By ddavid at 8:26 AM ON 10/23/08
Good idea in theory, but getting people to cooperate and keeping the clean from vandalism etc is much easier said than done in major cities.
By Jeff - ScienceSays.net at 7:04 PM ON 10/26/08
Very cool - I finally switched to rechargeable batteries a couple of years ago because I felt so guilty about the piles of metal my Discman and gameboy were creating somewhere; this is an awesome way to deal with bazillions of batteries we still throw away all the time.
It's funny how these ideas keep coming from countries like South Korea and Japan who are so far ahead of America on energy issues already; wish the States would put a little more effort into reducing our substantial impact.
By Terri at 7:59 PM ON 11/03/08
Great idea! I agree it might be better for home use, though.
By ript1 at 12:14 PM ON 11/11/08
I think it is a fantastic idea for use in crowded, gadget heavy, urban centres. I am ashamed to admid to chucking my own used batteries from time to time.
Obviously these would also need mains power which could activate whenever battery power fails/expires to prevent the public area going dark.
Plus the used batteries can be taken from the devices after draining and recycled or disposed of properly.
I would also venture that these are cheap as chips to build and maintain. Winner:)