Converting Footsteps into Clean Energy

The pavement will harness the energy stored while walking upon it and convert it into clean electricity. Pavegen, the company working on this innovation has presently installed a smart-flooring in a street in Central London. The simple device will work by collecting the footsteps; in addition, it will also collect on people’s shopping habits, especially the window shopping habit that can be converted into energy. The smart device present in a tile is placed on the pavement. When people walk on the tile, the three generators inside are turned on by the bodyweight. The generators are present at each of the three corners of the tile to ensure that all three are turned on each time a person steps their foot on it. The latest design introduced by Pavegen is capable of producing 200 times more electricity than their first model. This energy is sufficient to run street lights and also soundscape speakers on a street. The initial trial is limited on a small scale. But this is not all. The tiles in addition to harvesting valuable electricity are capable of recording precious data about shopping trends. Putting together this data will help understand the hotspots in a city or a street, helping the company understand where on a street people are congregating more or where they are held up. With this data, future versions of the tiles will be improved and more energy can be harvested. Walking, it seems is not only good for the body but also for the environment wherein with Pavegen’s new invention, a cleaner energy alternative is now available. In addition, it is also a good alternative for traffic jams