The Pace of Harvesting Energy

It pretty well known that energy can be neither created nor destroyed so why has it taken this long for us to attempt to harvest the energy used while performing a very basic task and the one we expend the most energy doing each day: walking. All those calories you consume on you lunch break could help power the lights you use when you get back to work.

An article released in Wired this past summer tells us of the ambitious undertaking by some British engineers to harvest the energy released into the ground in heavily traveled urban areas. The idea is to contain the vibrations released into the ground by footsteps and use the energy to power street lights and possibly the lighting in building. The benefits of this invention seem endless in building sustainable cities because it depends on human movement and we can all admit to being creatures of habit within our urban environments. I bet most of you walk the exact same path to work every single day, I know I usually do.

read article: Powering Up, One Step at a Time