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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."
There are forklifts driving back and forth on the production floor here at my place of work. If those 10,000 lb forklifts carrying 2,000 lb loads were driving over piezoelectric energy generating floors, how much energy could be harnessed? Certainly not enough to offset the cost in the short term, which is the only term my employer seems to comprehend.
Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?
I think this is a pretty cool idea. I can imagine a gym being a great place to do something like this: people go there to "waste" energy (tread-mills, various exercise machines). If they can set up their machines to basically be human powered generators, set resistance based on power output, etc, they might be able to convince people they are helping save the environment. Or at least cut down their electricity costs a bit.
"You just burned 150 calories and generated X amount of electrical energy" OR "Please maintain a speed of above 5 miles per hour or the tv will lose power and shut off"
> So what if it doesn't recover the monetary investment? Things would be a lot better off it PROFIT! wasn't the sole motivation behind any decision.
How? It took energy to make those floor devices. If they don't ever generate as much energy as it took to make them, we've wasted energy. How are we better off wasting energy?
Moreover if the things are really inefficient, then it means you're turning the people's food energy to nothing. It took a lot of energy and $$$ to feed those folks. Again, we're wasting expensive food and the energy it took to make and transport and cook that food.
Just stewing this over in my brain I was astonished by the possibilities.
Human activity follows a semi-diurnal cycle and in something like a subway station your peak generating capacity would be when masses of people are using the stations, let's say from 6 am to 9 am, 4 pm to 6 pm. Wherever this technology is applied you would need a certain level of foot traffic to make it cost effective.
Imagine this on the floors of airline terminals, sports stadiums, very busy downtown areas (sidewalks in the New York business district). You could even apply this to very busy interstates or near toll plazas.
The real stretch of imagination; think about building seawalls covered in a piezoelectric material where the constant wave action generates electricity. Even wind motion (variable winds, not constant winds where windmills are really the best solution) where you can generate electricity by the loading/unloading of force and strain through a piezoelectric mechanism.
Getting the price-point down low enough can make this an excellent contributor to power generation worldwide. If they covered the grounds around Mecca they could generate megawatts of power during the Haj.
Tisha Hayes