57. A New Way to Generate Electricity from Water

Water is a renewable resource and an important source of energy in various forms.The potential energy of water is harnessed to produce mechanical energy which can be used directly, or used to generate electricity. From centuries, water has always been a source of energy for hydroelectric power generation like macro, mini and micro levels based on the method of generating electricity invented by Michael Faraday in 1839. Presently, scientists led by Prof. Daniel Knowk and Prof. Larry Kostiuk at the University of Alberta (Canada) made a new discovery about the generation of electricity from water when they forced water through extremely narrow glass tube. Water squeezed down the tubes, narrower than a human hair (diameter approx. 5–18 mm), generated a small electric current that ran the length of the tube. The breakthrough, which scientists say, is the first new way to generate electricity in 160 years.