Pavegen taps pedestrians for power in East London (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted October 29th 2009 1:41PM
posted October 29th 2009 1:41PM
When we were kids, we assumed that in the future everything would be powered by tiny nuclear fusion reactors: automobiles, toothbrushes, time machines (apparently we read a lot of sci-fi from the 1950s). The truth, as usual, is more mundane than all that: some of the more promising advances we've seen in green energy has been kinetic, taking the movement of automobiles or the tides and converting it into electricity. Pavegen, for example, can be set in public walkways to generate as much as 2.1 watts of electricity per hour from the footsteps of grizzled pedestrians. Using marine grade stainless steel and recycled materials, just five of these bad boys distributed over a well-worn sidewalk should be able to generate enough energy to keep a bus stop going all night. If not put into nearby lighting, the units are equipped with lithium polymer batteries for storage. Currently being tested in East London, look for them throughout the UK in 2010. Video after the break.
[Via Inhabitat]
[Via Inhabitat]
See more video at our hub!
@ronclark2000 - We are producing passive units without the light, just flat rubber, the light is a way to provide feedback to users that research has shown encourages people to walk on the slabs. We only demonstrate the lighting units at shows as it is more engaging to the public.
@ kraz the lithium polymer batteries are guaranteed for around 2,500 cycles which works out at well over 5 years of use, the technology has improved vastly recently and its now a worth while option.
Thanks for your comments! especially the @Shmunt for the terrorist one as thats something we need to prevent in the anti tamper mechanism.
Ahh! That makes sense. Thanks.
If they really want to get energy from human motion, they should just make some human-sized hamster wheels. They would be way more efficient than this crazy thing. And they would provide extra recreation for citizens :P
This we be very useful in downtown New York.
Joy, another idiotic media stunt by people who seem incapable of understanding the simple concept known as "conservation of energy." To power this people need to use more energy as they walk over it, to use more energy they need to burn more calories, in burning more calories they output carbon dioxide, to compensate for the used energy they need to eat more and more food needs to be grown to let them eat it. You'd be better off burning a bunch of corn oil in a power plant in terms of efficiency and carbon output. Humans aren't very efficient beings and it gets even worse once you add in the energy needed to grow food. That's not counting how much energy it took to make this, run it, maintain it and so on. There's after all a reason exercise bikes at gyms don't have power outputs hooked up to them.
Of course none of that matters since this is about making money from gullible stupid people rather than helping the environment. Seems to be working rather well in that respect.
no flys on you hey!
I dont understand how i would use more energy walking over one of these things if im walking down the street anyway?
When I went to Interbuild last week they didn't have Mariah Carey in their stand (see 2:26 )
The energy used to produce these would be far greater than the energy saved by using them.
Oh, sure. First it's just stealing a little bit of energy while walking...
How long before the machines start harvesting us like in the Matrix?
I know if you're wearing a skirt, you shouldn't stand over glossy surfaces. Or lights.
There was a speed bump that used CARS to generate power...
See: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/speed-bumps-that-also-generate-electricity/
My dream to walk like Michael Jackson in the Billie Jean video will one day be realized!!
This sounds good for night clubs..New york Time square..Hong Kong Streets...SF Union Sq Shopping Area...
Soon, everyone will be able to dance on lighted floors like in the Billy Jean music video.
they use pseudo units like watts per hour, because they know how pathetically little the energy output of those systems is.
let's say, a 100 kg person steps on the plate, and makes it sink in 5 mm.
that would be approx. 1000 N * 5e-3 m = 5 Nm = 5 Joule of mechanical energy.
Let's say, there is quite some pedestrian traffic, and this happens every 5 seconds,
so the frequency of steps is 1/5 s^-1 :
5 Joule * (1/5 s^-1) = 1 Joule / s = 1 W
So 1 Watt of mechanical input power, under quite optimistic conditions, and out comes a lot less.
Maybe it could power a phone charger without the phone plugged into it.
Yeah, right.
Even if we are talking about small numbers here, eventually, the power shall be more, like 10 W.
Then, thinking back of these losers' comments who do no´t believe in anything (never), I shall give my best laugh.
"2.5 W >> 0 W".