Las Vegas Gets "Kinetic Tiles" That Power Lights With Foot Traffic (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: A New York-based startup called EnGoPlanet has installed four streetlights in a plaza off the Las Vegas Strip that are powered exclusively by solar and kinetic energy. The installations aren't mere streetlights though -- they also power a variety of environmental monitors, support video surveillance, and, for the masses, offer USB ports for device charging.

The streetlights are topped by a solar panel crest, and have "kinetic tiles" on the ground below them. These panels reportedly can generate 4 to 8 watts from people walking on them, depending on the pressure of the step. The renewable energy is then collected by a battery for use at night. The solar-plus-kinetic energy design is useful on those rare Vegas days without too much sun -- as long as there is still plenty of foot traffic.

Comments

little brother powers big brother

[beckett]

i love how the video advert sneaks in "Video Monitoring" as one of the many features that will be powered by humans at about 1:06. However, the use of "smart analytics" as describing a human powered Stingray/IMEI catcher has got to be a first.

I'm no physicist but...

[mattventura]

Conservation of energy? Isn't this just making the pedestrians expend more energy to walk?

Re:I'm no physicist but...

[caseih]

Care to explain? Because he's right. Walkers will have to expend a bit of extra work while walking on these tiles. It might not be much of course, and hardly noticeable to most perhaps. But I'd think it'd be similar to the difference between walking on soft grass or carpet vs pavement or concrete. The latter two surfaces absorb very little of the walking energy.

Re:I'm no physicist but...

[ClickOnThis]

I am a physicist, and the OP has a valid point.

Walking on a sidewalk fitted with these kinetic tiles would feel somewhat similar to walking up a slight incline. The extra expended energy would be modest, but real.

Re:I'm no physicist but...

[caseih]

No I don't think so. Work is not done unless there is movement involved. Just standing on the surface represents potential energy but not kinetic. There's no "stealing from the normal force which the Earth would exert." If that was true our energy problems would be over! Clean energy from nothing. The dream of crack pots everywhere.

It's also not true that gravity provides the energy for a mass compressed by gravity on a spring. Gravity can only work with the potential energy that was imparted by work to the mass. In other words it still takes energy to lift the mass up and place it on the spring, which is then compressed by gravity. There's no free lunch here.

Have you ever walked or run on a concrete sidewalk vs soft grass? There's even a difference between, albeit slight, between walking on pavement and concrete. There's a small but distinguishable difference in the amount of energy it takes to walk or even ride on the different surfaces. The kinetic tiles would be similar. The energy they generate comes from our stride, so that means our bodies have to work just a tiny bit harder.

Re:I'm no physicist but...

[PopeRatzo]

Walking on a sidewalk fitted with these kinetic tiles would feel somewhat similar to walking up a slight incline.

I've seen the people walking around Las Vegas. They could stand a little extra exercise.

Progress

[ChrisMaple]

Pretty soon now we'll reach the middle of the 19th century, and we'll have treadle powered sewing machines.

Re: Progress

[MMC Monster]

[...]Or underneath somebody dancing while trying to sleep.

This is Vegas. If someone over you is dancing, you just paid $20 and probably not looking forward to a nap.

Re:Rare vegas days?

[PopeRatzo]

Between Oct and March/April the sun goes down around 5/6 pm and rises around 7/8 am

Sunrise in Las Vegas on March 1 is 6:10am.

Foot powered video surveillance

[Anonymous Coward]

..but unfortunately sarge, all the surveillance footage stopped abruptly after the gunman shouted "Nobody move"