Perpetuum pushes vibration energy, as does the CIA

Perpetuum is the the latest company hoping to harness an new kind of power source: Vibrations.

That’s right. Most vibrations caused by mechanical operations –caused in most places where equipment and people are at work — are wasted. Perpetuum, a London, UK company, transforms these vibrations into electrical power. It does this by hooking up a mechanical resonator to a microgenerator, which transforms kinetic energy caused by things like rumbling machines into electrical current.

It has just raised a £5 million ($10.1M) second round of financing to bring it to market. The funding comes from Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF), Quester and Top Technology.

The company says its generators may be better than battery technology for low-power electrical needs such as operating wireless sensors. These sensors can then monitor the performance of the very industrial machines that are powering them.

This sort of thing also has use in military and security settings, where you don’t want humans around. Indeed, the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel, last year invested an undisclosed amount in a competing company AdaptivEnergy in Hampton, VA. No word on what the CIA will use it for.

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