Power from the people in Japan
I read some really cool news on Gizmodo this morning, regarding Japan's innovative way of powering their Christmas decorations. Outside one of their busiest train stations, commuters will be supplying the energy for their fairy lights. All the dozens of people who walk over a 90 cm square special mat will be contributing to the running of the lights display around the station.
The mat uses piezoelectric technology to collect kinetic energy that's created whenever a person walks over it. Apparently, for each person weighing 60kg, 0.5W of energy is stored whenever they walk over it twice. Presumably, this means that people who walk out of the station will indeed walk out of the station later. At the moment, it is not totally waterproof, but it can withstand some light rain.
With a bit more advancement in the technology, it could definitely be used more and more. Imagine the whole of Leicester Square being powered by the thousands of people milling around it, and at no extra cost. It's all renewable energy as well. So it's pretty environmentally friendly. I just hope that there's no major flaw that gets discovered by some science boffins. People designing houses run on renewable energy sources should take note, as this could be something to add at the front door.
