Energy-Generating Floors To Power Subway Displays In Tokyo

Jason Sahler writes "When the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) decided to invest in alternative energy sources, it only had to look to its users for the perfect source of energy. Recently the company decided to update their Tokyo Station with a revolutionary new piezoelectric energy generating floor. The system will harvest the kinetic energy generated by crowds to power ticket gates and display systems."

Comments

What a waste

[snowraver1]

I have a hard time believing that installing thousands of tiny peizoelectric generators in the floor to be either a) better for the environment or b)profitable.

I would bet that the cost to the environment in producing these special devices, would be greater than the coal that would have been fed into a coal power plant to produce the same amount of power.

Not Just Theft of Services, Theft of Calories

[gblackwo]

It may be a joke that they are stealing PE and KE, but they really are making it slightly harder to walk around. Thus the user will be doing more work- ie- burning more calories.

Godzilla

[OglinTatas]

just imagine how much energy can be harvested this way the next time Godzilla rampages! Energy independence, AND the project will pay for itself in about a 40 minute feature film. Of course, then you have to rebuild it and wait for the next rampage for the new project to pay off...

Re:Interesting

[Eg0Death]

The forklifts are driving hither and yon and burning fuel regardless of the presence of these tiles. Having the tiles in high traffic locations would generate some electricity.

The limited amount of information I've read regarding these tiles has not mentioned the distance they must travel for electricity to be generated. However, since they have to operate without impeding foot traffic, I suspect the distance is minimal. Certainly no more than an inch. If the tile was 1 inch above the level of the floor when uncompressed and dropped to that level when compressed, I suspect that something weighing 10,000 - 12,000 lbs with 20+ inch tires would have enough momentum to depress the tile with a very minimal increase in fuel consumption. Taking into consideration the miserable condition of the floors in the plant and the surrounding exterior locations of forklift travel, 1 inch is of little significance.