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Latest "Green" Power Generation — Your Feet
gbjbaanb writes "Remember those ideas that suggested hooking gym machines to the power grid? Well, the Times is reporting that something like this to harness free energy is about to become a reality — the footfall of trudging shoppers is to become the latest source of emission-free energy.
'Engineers who have modelled the effects of the technology at Victoria Underground station in central London have calculated that the 34,000 travellers passing through every hour could power 6,500 lightbulbs. ... The plans for heel-strike generation follow successful trials last year at a bridge in the Midlands where generators converted energy from trains passing above into electricity powering a flood detector.'
Possibly the most important thing for the readership is at the end:
'There could also be a range of domestic uses, for example powering iPods by plugging them into batteries placed in the owners' heels, using technology which is already available.' Obviously you'd have to get up and walk around, but, as they say, it's the thought that counts."
As well as no free energy.
Humans can't power much continuously. At full tilt on an efficient machine a PRO biker can light a 100 watt bulb. The average luser working out, not worth the bother.
All the equipment, moving parts, maintained, used to capture human power won't reach the point of break even on any of this stuff. (If you pay your maintenance guy at least.)
They'd be better off CLOSING the stinking gyms and making people work out outside and not DRIVE there than capturing that power.
Green is not complicated, often, it is SIMPLE.
Post was modded "Funny", but it's actually true. Wish there was a +1 "Ironic". I would hazard a guess that most of the World's problems wouldn't exist w/o people...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Most western and industrialized nations people need all the extra exercise they can get. (I said most, not all, some people actually stay in shape, most do not, go ahead, look around you) I think the artificial urban power sucking islands could use around a few million of these generators, help to walk off some of that lard and get some practical benefit from it. I already see those ridiculous belching buses that they praise as mass transit stopping every couple hundred of feet. Egads people can't even walk beyond that? Then they go sit on their asses all day long at some office. Jeebus, how wuss can you get? "OMG it feels like walking on sand! I might get the swooning vapors!"
The only way this is going to be "emission free" is if people don't exhale.
Getting all nerded up and talking about "there is no free energy" only covers it partly, specificly the bad part.
In 'reality' though there are certain bonusses to a soft walking surface.
1. You get more traction and reduce slipping of feet (which is a problem on hard surfaces with grains of sand on it).
2. Damage from falling is reduced.
3. A soft surface is easier on the joints, which is important for everyone, though especially elderly and disabled people.
Try finding one of those new fancy playgrounds with a semi-soft rubbery-like surface and walk on it. Much more comfortable to walk on compared to concrete.
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
If we could build a device to pick up all the negative waves around here, the amount of energy collected would cause the Sun to snuff out a septillionth of a second later.
Its a cool idea, even if its not 100% practical. Throwing around the standard "there's no free lunch" response doesn't prove your smart, it just proves you're an asshole.
.. that the person would be there anyway. You have to think about this idea as recovering wasted energy, rather than generating new energy because all those people are walking about anyway.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Well, that depends on how you define the Green Revolution. I prefer to define it in terms of agriculture and human production standards. In terms of the work of Norman Borlaug and other scientists' contribution, rather than as a way to dismiss folks as leftist, which these folks in particular are not. That work has likely saved the lives of more people than almost any other act in human history.
That said, there's a lot to be said for currently 'leftist' ideas like biodiversity, climate change, and such - but none of those are as much a critical bottleneck to saving lives from suffering and death as the core ideas of food and energy production. It's very much correct to worry if these processes are removing quality and sustainability to life too, over the longer term - but the core issues with the green revolution are far closer to the 'old timers' than the hippies you may associate the words with.
Ryan Fenton