Foot-Generated Electricity

While pacing may be the cure for nervous energy, it might also become a generator of, well, energy. Spinning off American military technologies involving soldiers’ boot-mounted mini-generators, British engineers have developed underfloor generators that can produce energy from footsteps above. They’ve calculated that 34,000 commuters in London’s Victoria Underground station are capable of powering 6,500 light bulbs every hour – the plan being to install the first foot-powered generators at Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth as tourists climb up and down the seven-trillion or so stairs.

Times Online – Light Fantastic

[via inhabitat]