Piezo power

Power junkies are taking over our cities. Maybe you’ve seen them in a café, head down, laptop under arm, searching for a source of electrical power to feed their addiction. Or perhaps they’ve been lurking next to a games machine, waiting for an opportunity to unplug it so that they can charge their iPad in time for their next Twitter update.

The insatiable need for electricity is only set to get worse. Finally, after years of screeching dial-up connections, people can take their cyber existence with them on the train, as they walk to work, or while they wait for a bus. Everything has become more convenient and far more connected. That is, of course, until your laptop ’low-battery’ light starts flashing and you join the crowds in the frantic search for a charging point to save that all-important document.

Since the introduction of ’wireless’ technology, scientists have been working on a way to cure this mass dependency on power. The holy grail is to develop a system that can recharge its batteries without the need for an external energy source. And thanks to a new wave of piezoelectrics - materials that create electrical potential when subject to pressure - their efforts are now picking up pace.