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Pavegen To Tap Pedestrians For Power In the UK

Posted by samzenpus on from the electric-slide dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Several years ago Laurence Kembell-Cook unveiled Pavegen floor tiles, which capture kinetic energy from footsteps and convert it to electricity. Now after two years of product testing and picking up a slew of awards across the U.K., Pavegen has received its first commercial order — to light up the new Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre."

3 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Laws of Thermodynamics... by niftydude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Energy doesn't appear out of nowhere for free.

    Walking on these floor tiles requires more energy than regular floors.
    So are they going to start paying brits for all the extra food that they need to eat in order to power these things?

    --
    You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
    1. Re:Laws of Thermodynamics... by onion2k · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Perhaps walking on these tiles costs the same amount of energy as regular tiles, but some of the energy that is normally wasted as heat and sound is captured and turned into something useful...

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      http://twitter.com/onion2k
    2. Re:Laws of Thermodynamics... by gandhi_2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Man this kind of argument pisses me off.

      "5 isn't even remotely comparable to 1000".

      Sure it is. It is 1/200'ths as much. Plenty comparable.

      5 mm flex is not even remotely comparable to world peace, chuck norris, or boreal toads. a flexible floor IS comparable to walking in sand.

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      THL phish sticks