Skip to main content

Soylent Green Is People! You As An Energy Source

By

soylent_green The old folks who power jog around the mall before it opens are a pretty focused bunch and probably wouldn’t even notice if Charlton Heston charged through to inform them that they, they are being used as an energy source. But some clever British engineers have found a way to convert walking into at least enough energy to keep the lights going.

Underfloor generators, powered by “heel strike” and designed by British engineers, may soon be installed in supermarkets and railway stations.

The technology could use the footsteps of pedestrians to power thousands of lightbulbs at shopping centres. It works by using the pressure of feet on the floor to compress pads underneath, driving fluid through mini-turbines that then generate electricity, which is stored in a battery.

Although the technology is all in place, you knew there had to be a catch:

The underfloor generators could in theory be used in any place where there are large numbers of pedestrians, although the expense of the technology at its current stage of development means that it is unlikely to become widespread for several years.

And we suppose the amount of people power necessary to keep, say, a town going would lead to some mighty powerful calves at the annual sack race. Still, the ingenuity of this effort shouldn’t be slighted nor its potential in logical venues undervalued – it could very well find a place at the renewable energy table.

Photograph from Soylent Green. If I remember rightly, the photo depicts the future world’s way of dealing with riots caused by overpopulation – the early seventies version of global warming, if you want to look at it that way – not how people got to be Soylent Green. That happened at the euthanasia parlors, where fine actors like Edward G. Robinson go to die a peaceful, state-assisted death and then get mulched into food. No one’s idea of a sci-fi classic.

I suppose a better sci-fi equivalent is The Matrix, where people are used as an energy source for the machine world, albeit without mobility.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
If a pedestrian expends extra energy to operate these floor generators, couldn't they sue the store owners for taking their energy without asking permission?
June 9, 2008 at 9:54 PM
DW said…
Hey! Was too a CLASSIC!!! Soylent Green was a great movie and is a huge cult hit. "not a classic". Geezzz...

David Walters
June 10, 2008 at 1:43 AM
Anonymous said…
This must be a joke.

Working hard, a typical human can produce about 200 W on a continuous basis. Walking in a shopping mall, no one will be willing to put out even a modest fraction of this (e.g., walking through quicksand).

If one wants to spent a lot of effort to harvest a very dilute energy source, build windmills.
June 11, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more