How your footsteps can be turned into energy?

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Today 7.4 Billion people live on the planet earth and 55% of them already live in the cities. Those cities are getting smarter and smarter, with all the sensors and technology around us. You can be a part of this digitalisation process by simply walking on the pavement, but not just a regular one, but one produced by Pavegen.

What is Pavagen? A technology that has been introduced by a young Brit of a name of Laurence Kemball-Cook. Pavegen is basically a pavement which uses the energy of your footsteps to generate electric energy. He came up with it after leaving the largest energy company in Europe, because he could not a solution for the task they gave him (the task was to produce a street light powered from renewable energy). After he left he did not stop thinking about it, and started thinking about something smart and viable. Thanks to his studies of Industrial Design Technology, he came up with an idea of generating energy though every single footstep of millions and millions of people in the cities. He has spent 4 years developing the technology to allow it work and finally Pavegen started existing and this days is being implemented into different cities in many countries all around the globe.

Not only does it generate electricity, but also is able to store energy and analyse the walking habits of people, which in the near future will definitely be useful for many people who will be planning the cities for a growing numbers of people, shops, cars (let’s hope not) and many other things. The smarter the cities, the easier our lives.

 

Sources:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3pT8xErQzs&t=746s
  • http://www.pavegen.com/what-we-do/
  • Private conversations with the CEO

3 thoughts on “How your footsteps can be turned into energy?

  1. Tautkevychius Yana says:

    The idea sounds interesting.However I wanted to figure out some details. Have much money the government should spend to implement this invention in the city like Warsaw, or to be more specific – on one square meter? Also, when this amount will be payed off?

  2. Gil Jakub says:

    I think that analyzing walking people habits sounds interesting. It gives a possibility to determine in which time various parts of a city is active more. Local government should take advantage of traffic tracking to increase public safety level. For example by commissioning additional police patrols in these locations.

  3. Sajewicz Marta says:

    I like the idea of turning energy into renewable electricity. It is another example that nothing goes to waste. This technology can also have great potential when it comes to pedestrian safety. Maybe in the future, due to collected data, it will also limit the number of texting while walking accidents.

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