One of Rao's
micro-windmills is placed here on a penny.
A UT Arlington research associate and electrical engineering
professor have designed a micro-windmill that generates wind energy and may
become an innovative solution to cell phone batteries constantly in need of
recharging and home energy generation where large windmills are not preferred.
Smitha Rao and J.-C. Chiao designed and built the device
that is about 1.8 mm at its widest point. A single grain of rice could hold
about 10 of these tiny windmills. Hundreds of the windmills could be embedded
in a sleeve for a cell phone. Wind, created by waving the cell phone in air or
holding it up to an open window on a windy day, would generate the electricity
that could be collected by the cell phone’s battery.