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"Crowd Farm" to Collect Energy?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the kriss-kross-to-make-comeback dept.

Cain writes to mention that a couple of MIT students would like to harness the mechanical power of large groups of people. "A Crowd Farm in Boston's South Station railway terminal would work like this: A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station's main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current."

2 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A better idea by 'nother+poster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because you only go through the turnstiles once, but you take thousands of steps through the station.

  2. Yet another silly energy article by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Let's do the math:
    • Let's say we can grab say one-tenth of a walker's energy without them caring.
    • Walking takes about 1/20th of a horsepower.
    • So we're getting 1/200th of a horsepower from each person.
    • If we assume there's 1000 people walking by, that's two horsepower.
    • About 1500 watts.
    • That's about ten cents an hour. Given the variability of traffic, maybe a dollar a day.
    • Assuming the mechanism costs a measly $100,000, at a dollar a day you can't even pay the interest on the loan.
    • PLus it probably needs more than $1 a day of maintenance.
    • Not a good idea.