Toulouse is investigating the feasibility of generating electricity by pedestrians walking on special sidewalk panels.

The French city of Toulouse is planning to install energy-absorbing sidewalk panels that would harvest pedestrian power to illuminate street lights. The panels, made by a Dutch company, Sustainable Dance Club, are embedded with microsensors that produce energy when people move over them. The company had also installed such modules in a nightclub in Rotterdam last year.

Toulouse city officials plan to place a section of custom-made modules in the city centre for a two-week trial period, which can produce around 60 watts of electricity, enough to power a street lamp.

City of Toulouse

[via Popsci]