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POWERleap Harnesses Energy From Foot Steps!

by Jill Fehrenbacher, 04/14/09

kinetic energy, eco tiles, energy generating tiles, energy tiles, foot power, green playground, people powered energy, piezoelectric, piezoelectricity, power leap, power tile, powerleap

Here’s a brilliant invention that makes us wonder why all city sidewalks aren’t covered in piezoelectric tiles. POWERleap is a floor tiling system that converts wasted energy from human foot traffic into electricity. The magic behind that awesomeness is piezoelectric technology and advanced circuitry design, which converts pitter-patter into power. First showcased in 2007 as part of Metropolis magazine’s Next Generation design competition, we see HUGE potential from this invention. Individual footsteps might not produce a significant amount of power, but if you consider the total kinetic energy from stampedes of shoppers on 5th avenue, (or commuters in a train station, or revelers in a nightclub), it all adds up fast and could be a viable energy source to power specific applications like lights.

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7 Responses to “POWERleap Harnesses Energy From Foot Steps!”

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JokerDawg Says:
April 14th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

wouldn’t it be cool if they can apply that technology to every step in stair case in any kind of building?

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josh Says:
April 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am

There is no such thing as free energy. For a piezo-electric mat to generate power, it needs to absorb it from the impact of a foot. That means it will take slightly more energy for a walker to cross that surface. Over time, the walker will need to ingest more calories to replace that energy. This is a horribly inefficient way to generate electricity. The petroleum, water and land required to grow, transport and prepare food to power people to walk on floors would be much better used to generate electricity directly. And then we wouldn’t get yet another impediment to just getting around our cities.

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mcrobb.m Says:
April 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

To Josh, that\’s a bold claim to make without any LCA, how do you know what the net energy effect would be? Has anyone done a LCA for this yet? Isn\’t that possibly why it\’s still in the R&D stages? Plus with Piezo\’s you are talking displacements in the manner of microns, hence it states that one walker on his/her own would have an insignificant effect (hence unlikely to be out of breath after a few foot steps, it isn\’t foam or rubber, its crystal), but combine all these tiny efforts of hundreds of individuals together and we have some viable power……..

My issue is net energy from manufacture to harvesting, but there is that need for LCA again…

Plus, if it were the way you put, I think many parts of the western world could be doing with the extra effort when walking to try and burn off some of those excess calories don\’t you think?! (humor btw)

Lets wait and see how this evolves, you can\’t shoot down every new idea before its been properly developed, give them a chance

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shimmydave Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

To Josh/

This floor just absorbs energy that it normally dispated into the floor as vibrations (kinetic energy), The material deforms hardly any different to what standard floor would (especailly a carpet). I went to a nightclub in london and it had one of these floors, it hardly moved when you danced on it.

from your point of view we should scrap anything that absorbs our energy while walking, so get rid of shoes altogether then. they absorb our walking energy alot more than this floor would and from your view they are making it more tiring to walk and therefore making us burn extra energy, just think how much energy we would save not manufacturing shoes and not shipping them round the world.

RCL
RCL Says:
May 26th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

Why stop there. Install them in the streets and take advantage of the mass of all that traffic flowing by.

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Jitendra Khalpada Says:
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:38 am

Kindly give me more details on quality reqd. & cost of the floor space/carpet to be used in generation of electricity. It will benifit the human being at large.Thanks.

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Deepak Sharma Says:
August 6th, 2009 at 6:10 am

This is a very good way of tapping energy which is any way getting lost. This can be surely used on downward slopes where the person will be not feel the impact.

 

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