A group of 20 Pavegen slabs will be installed in the center of a giant shopping mall in east London that has recently opened next to the stadium that will host next year's Olympic Games.

As the tens of thousands of people pass through on their way to or from the stadium each day, they will be helping light the mall with every step they take. Another part of the payoff will be helping the owners meet their tough sustainability targets.

Kemball-Cook has his sights set on bigger projects. "We are looking at transport hubs like airports and train stations, shopping malls. The average person walks 1.8 kilometers [1.1 miles] per airport journey. We have tested slabs thoroughly, and they are tough. We have machines that hammer them up to the equivalent of the high millions of footsteps," he said.

"Our system can be installed in so many different places. There is no one niche area for it," he explained.

Then there is the walkers' involvement with the product. "People are fascinated by it. They want to interact with it." he said. That became obvious with original slabs, which have a small LED lamp in the middle that can be turned on with a footprint. There are other types that simply generate electricity for external use.

"When the Pavegen team took a set of slabs to a music festival in September, they recorded 250,000 footsteps in just three days as people danced on them to make their own disco lighting," the inventor explained. "In fact, we couldn't get them off. We would say, 'Please, we want to go home now,' but they would reply, 'No, we want to keep in dancing,'" he said.

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

12 Comments

1. 1. apache 04:42 PM 11/14/11

   That's a good idea.

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2. 2. RHoltslander 05:21 PM 11/14/11

   If they could develop something that generated electricity from frost heaves now that would be useful where I live.

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3. 3. jayjacobus 05:51 PM 11/14/11

   Will steady pressure generate a steady current or does the current only come from an up and down footstep?

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4. 4. Bops 06:05 PM 11/14/11

   How expensive to make these slabs?
   Sounds like this may be a good idea for roads or any kind of regular movement.

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5. 5. SuperString 06:07 PM 11/14/11

   A clever use of otherwise wasted mechanical energy, and Green to boot. Hats off!

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6. 6. YouHaveGotToBeKidding 08:17 PM 11/14/11

   An, not clever. Not clever at all. This idea just steals energy from the pedestrians. In no way is this energy "free". You are performing work and burning calories for each erg generated.

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7. 7. zstansfi in reply to YouHaveGotToBeKidding 11:34 PM 11/14/11

   How is that a problem? What other use would this work go towards?

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8. 8. sault 01:04 AM 11/15/11

   maybe if they could do this in front of stoplights and take some of the energy from cars that would normally go to waste during braking, it might make sense (even the best hybrids and EVs use friction brakes a lot when decelerating rapidly OR when operating under around 7mph). The power a person can generate is miniscule really, but recovering waste energy to power the stoplight or something might be useful. Or they could just wire some solar PV on the stoplight to get it powered.

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9. 9. amici 07:02 AM 11/15/11

   Way to go Sir! If they manage to pull 30s of light (on a LED I suppose) from a single foot step, that's not minuscule at all! If LED is maybe 5W, then for half a minute it needs ~40mWh.
   Multiply that with thousands of people and thousands of steps daily, on a relatively busy street - that's 40kWh.
   Hopefully the price is not astronomic.
   
   I already see it installed in barns, in remote villages and having the live stock taking care of the light needs! :) A cow must make at least 5 times more energy 'per step' :)

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10. 10. HubertB 08:46 PM 11/15/11

    In answer to jayjacobs only the up and down motion would generate a piezoelectric effect as first described by Pierre Curie.

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11. 11. Carlyle 02:05 AM 11/16/11

    I hope he does not waste too much of his life on this. He will at least learn some physics & business skills along the way. Better than studying numerology or aroma therapy I suppose :)

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12. 12. Yuddie 09:35 AM 2/12/12

    Hi,
    
    Great innovation.
    
    How can I help bring this to Kampala where we are grappling with unreliable street lighting?
    
    Jude Lumala

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