posted by admin on Jun 21
Catching the train could power your local shops with this latest invention?
Apparently new technology is allowing energy to be created by foot power!
Years ago I read an article about a farmer who had installed a mini dynamo in boards his cattle walked over every day to produce enough energy to power machinery in his dairy - but this has come a long way and looks to become commercial.
What’s happening now?
Trials have been running to see whether with this latest invention, the energy generated by the movement of the ground being walked on can be trapped and used to create electricity. Ideally then, commuters on their way to work would trigger the generation of power to run the very places they are going to work - or the station they are passing through.
Apparently around 3,400 travellers pass through London’s Victoria Underground station every hour during the day - and this could generate enough power for 6,500 light-bulbs to be used every day.
What could happen in the future?
The whole concept could be up-scaled to any other movable surface including the very rails that the trains themselves move on, so every train that passes over the fluid filled compression chamber would generate electricity - stored in a generator nearby.
It had already worked on a small scale in the UK, with trains powering a flood detection system, and there are hopes for the first pedestrian prototype to be installed in the new Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, on the UK south coast.
However the cost of the technology for this invention is very expensive at the moment, so large scale operations may not be seen for many years, although what a great idea this is for the future of energy…
You could power your iPod with your own footsteps as you walk to work……
.
Leave a Reply