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Energy harvesting: walking can give you more energy (literally!)
By WDavidStephenson | July 31, 2007
Don’t worry: I haven’t switched this blog to fitness (although Ms. Homeland Security and I bought talking pedometers this weekend, and have become born-again walkers…).
Remember the throngs running from the WTC on 9/11? Now there’s a new technology that might mean people fleeing disasters might be able to generate the power needed to run emergency communications.
The Boston Globe reports that two MIT students recently won a global sustainable energy competition with their “Energy Farm” proposal, which would harness the energy generated by large numbers of individuals in places such as train stations or concerts, and turn it into electrical energy (minute amounts at this point, but who knows about the future??).
It would work when blocks in a sub-flooring system that depress slightly as people walk, and the blocks rub against each other, similar to a dynamo, which converts motion into energy.
Hey, every bit of alternative energy can help, non?
Technorati tags:
sustainability renewable energy energy efficiency sustainable development homeland security 2.0 Energy Farm MIT
Topics: technology | |
