University of Tokyo researchers have developed a machine to gather and recycle wasted energy produced by microwave ovens when they run. When cooking food, microwave ovens continuously lose energy that could be put to a better use.
The device has an antenna that collects the excess energy and distributes it to other devices. Engineer Yoshihiro Kawahara and his team found that running a microwave for two minutes generated enough energy to power a kitchen timer with small batteries for a few minutes. If the technology was built into kitchen applications, consumers would be able to decrease their carbon footprint with no extra effort.
Read more about the device and what was the driving force behind Kawahara’s experiment.
