Pavegen flexible paving slabs generate energy from footsteps

Due to a need to reduce carbon emissions and keep costs down, producing renewable energy is increasingly important for most governments and the tech industry at the moment. With that in mind investments are being made in the popular green energy sectors such as wind, solar, and wave energy. However, people’s steps (thousands upon thousands a day) utilize and channel kinetic energy too. An emerging startup called Pavegen has installed such squares of energy-generating pavement in London.

A slab of concrete harnesses kinetic energy whenever it is stepped on. This energy, created by 5 millimeters of flex in the material, is then either stored by lithium polymer batteries contained within the slabs or transmitted immediately to streetlights or other electronics located close by. The current model, made from stainless steel, recycled car tires and recycled aluminum, also includes a lamp embedded in the pavement that lights up every time a step is converted into energy (using only 5 percent of the generated energy).

In an effort to keep the production of the pavement as green and sustainable as possible, Pavegen partnered with Ryburn Rubber Limited and Advanced LEDs (which has also invested in the idea) to make sure that its components create as small an environmental impact as possible. Launched in July of this year, the company spun out of a project at Loughborough University.

The average square of pavement produces about 2.1 watts of electricity. And according to Pavegen, any one square of pavement in a high-foot traffic area can see 50,000 steps a day. Based on this data, only five units of Pavegen pavement can be enough to keep the lights on at a bus stop all night. The company, led by 24-year old founder Laurence Kemball-Cook, says it eventually wants its slabs to power automatic doors, ticket machines, neon signs, and even computers and major appliances.

Pavegen isn’t targeting its product exclusively at municipalities. One of its big ideas is to have stores located on busy sidewalks install them in front of their locations to power their signage or any internal electronics. To encourage this adoption, the company says it will brand its slabs for its commercial customers. The slabs installed in East London happen to be green (thus suggesting its clean-tech solution) but they come in a variety of colors. The company believes the embedded lamp is important to inform passersby of their contribution to the clean energy movement.

The startup plans to roll out more Pagevgen units in the United Kingdom in the next year, but it envisions installing them one day in Times Square in New York — think of all the electronic displays it could help power there — and other frequented locations in the U.S. One of the ideas pitched on its web site is to install slabs in subway turnstiles where thousands of people — about 36,000 per hour — walk a day to power station electronics.

The system from Pavegen makes a lot of sense in very busy public areas as it will constantly be generating energy which will no doubt mean the system pays for itself very quickly and then continues to cut energy costs, the need for extended power wires and carbon emissions. It also helps that they are self contained units meaning no expensive digging up of the ground surrounding them, thus making them easy to install. Pavegen is not the only company thinking this way and along their direct competition, we’re bound to see many other companies trying to develop their energy harvesting products for all the other activities we carry out regularly.

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