Foot power to light up London for 2012 Olympics

In London, a company named Pavegen systems developed a new technology that uses electricity produced from stepping slabs to power street lights and subway stations. In London, with almost 8 million people, about 11 trillion steps are taken per day. Their idea was to use the steps citizens take in London to light up the city in 2012 Olympics. These green stepping slabs produces electricity every time you step on it. These are planned to cover an entire set of stairs. Kemball-Cook, managing director of Pavegen, says his goal is to provide at least 25% of the stations' power from green slabs. The way how this thing works is that there is a disk that compresses 5mm when the slab is stepped on. The kinetic energy is then converted to electricity that gets stored in an internal battery, or it could be sent through wires to a light source. One of their ideas was to draw people's attention to the slabs by having it glow every time one steps on it. It will also be installed in pedestrian crossings, so that the drivers can see the glow of green slabs clearly.

I think this is a great idea to obtain electricity in a dense city like London. Even though this was planned out for 2012 Olympics, this technology could go on and power up a huge portion of the city. There are many ways of achieving energy: hydroelectric power generation, nuclear power, wind power, solar energy, and fossil fuels. However, this invention generates electricity from such a simple thing; steps. Energy is generated from our steps, but can generate so much electricity, since about 11 trillion steps are taken in dense cities such as London. I hope this idea develops more, worldwidely, so that every country can obtain pollution-free energy from the steps people take every day.

Article: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/758510--foot-power-to-light-up-london-by-2012