Monday, August 07, 2006

Powering Up, One Step at a Time

"We can harvest between 5 to 7 watts of energy per footstep that is currently being wasted into the ground," says Claire Price, director of The Facility Architects, the British firm heading up the Pacesetters Project. "And a passing train can generate very useful energy to run signaling or to power lights."

Like solar and wind proponents, vibration harvesters argue that abundant, clean energy is all around us and goes to waste. The challenge is how to store the power efficiently so it provides a continual output even if the vibrations from footsteps or passing trains temporarily taper off.


Wouldn't it be cool to live in a world that harvested 90% or more of its wasted energy?

(One possible outcome of such steely economy is the Dyson Sphere, a collection of panels that encapsulates an entire star, making sure little or no solar radiation goes unutilized.)

3 comments:

JohnFen said...

Interesting -- I'm working on a product that is based on the same idea (no, I can't tell you more about it yet.)

As Buckminster Fuller said, and he's right, "There is no energy shortage. There is no energy crisis. There is a crisis of ignorance."

We are awash in energy, but are amazingly unimaginative in terms of energy use. Energy shortage is really a imagination shortage. We're intellectually as lazy as plentiful oil allows us to be.

In the future there won't be a single source for all the energy we use, because there is (apparently) no single source that can replace oil. Instead, we'll start powering things by individualized methods, each designed to best fit the context and needs the machine oeprates under.

platts42 said...

Thats brilliant. I hadn't thought of it.

I'd like a sporty pair of step energy capturing platform shoes please.

platts42 said...

I'd also like to fit cows and sheep with methane fart catchers.