Piezoelectric leaf to make electricity from wind power?

[wile_coyote7]

   I was taking out the trash the other day and walked past a palm tree in my front yard and noticed quite a few of the fronds on the tree moving rhythmically up and down....sort of like a steady bounce. The reason why this was so notable was that there was barely even a breeze blowing to account for such a movement, but yet there the fronds were, happily bouncing. There the fronds were, bouncing from barely any air movement. Seemingly endless motion from such small movement of air.

I wondered if one could harness such movement. Why not try to mimic nature in respect of the palm frond movement. What if you used a thin piece of sheet metal or the like, and form it into frond-like shapes (or anything for that matter) that would bounce or move with the slightest wind, and on the surface of these, attach or fix a piezoelectric material so that the movement would produce an electrical potential? Maybe build a whole "tree" of these all linked together?

Crazy idea I guess....but at least maybe somebody can tell me if it's financially feasible or that one could get enough energy or not, to justify even building it.

[am1ll3r]

http://www.humdingerwind.com/windbelt.html

Check this out....

Humdinger?s core technology, the WindbeltTM generator, gets around these problems by putting aside rotation entirely. Instead, we have developed a method by which a taut, vibrating membrane, coupled with a no-contact, direct-drive electrical generator, can tap the energy of flowing air. The effect we capitalize on is known as aeroelastic flutter, most famously exhibited in the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse (see a video of the collapse here

[psychopath]

I think this is a great idea.

Perhaps we could implant piezoelectric devices in trees themselves, this way we wouldn't need any extra space for the generators, and it would encourage people to plant more trees.

[wile_coyote7]

Hmm....interesting thought. It would be cool as long as the device(s) wouldn't harm or otherwise interfere with the plant's normal growth.

I also found this, which is along the same lines:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d6ae773c-cae6-11dc-a960-000077b07658.html

Sadly, not many details in that article.