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I noticed that some company as Freeplay Energy Ltd make wind-up electricity generators for humanitarian purposes. One suggestion here is that besides making generators recharged by human power, one can also adapt them (increase the size) to allow animals to do the recharging (ie donkeys...) Animals can be set to work a lot longer and will probably also generate much more power.
On the other hand, the feed used for the animal could be used to produce electricity directly, which is likely to be more efficient.
It is definitely possible. The question is: Is it cost-effective? That's obviously a context-dependent question, but consider that animal power was replaced by mechanical power based on fossil fuels, and now fossil fuel based electricity is being replaced by solar in small-scale remote contexts. I'd want to see figures for costs and conversion.
Of course it's possible that there could be technologies like FreePlay's which could be adapted to make animal power more cost-effective (presumably as just one of the outputs of the animal, with meat and milk). Interesting idea. --Chriswaterguy 06:27, 19 March 2011 (PDT)
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