Have you ever wondered as you pound that treadmill, how useful it would be if all that energy you were expending could be powering the lighting in the gym?
Or if the vigorous dancing you indulged in last night could be recharging your mobile at the same time? How about somehow converting the running energy from your tennis or hockey match, through the soles of your trainers into heating your student house? For the scientists among you, that would be converting kinetic energy into electrical energy. Loughborough University graduate Laurence Kemball-Cook had the same idea, but founded a company to prove it.
Kemball-Cook started to develop his ground-breaking technology whilst studying Industrial Design and Technology at Loughborough, and after graduating with a first-class degree in 2009, set up Pavegen Systems to produce and market his electricity-generating flooring. Pavegen Systems has steadily increased its profile and profits since then, with Kemball-Cook's sound business ability and intelligent use of experiential events bringing the company to the attention of global partners and sponsors.
The largest installation so far was at this year's Schneider Electric Paris Marathon held on April 7th, using over 25metres of the recycled rubber floor tiles on the runner’s course, spectator-viewing platforms, and at other key points along the route. The energy harvesting floor slabs captured runners' footfalls while a wall display showed data indicating the kinetic energy generated by the runners, their feet striking the ground some 800 times per mile.
Global energy management experts Schneider Electric have become the first ever title sponsor of the Paris Marathon, and chose Pavegen Systems for the iconic race, to help create a memorable experiential event for spectators and participants. Combining the healthy and accessible sport of running with the importance of sustainable and clean forms of energy, the Paris Marathon highlighted their mutual commitment to energy efficiency and ‘cleantech’, and demonstrated one of the many innovative and exciting ways energy can be tracked, saved and transformed.
The path to a viable business started with a great idea, Kemball-Cook's technological intelligence and vision, and hard work combined with entrepreneurial training at Loughborough. Kemball-Cook's hard work paid off in winning awards in industrial design with some funding, enabling him to start working with manufacturers to make small quantities of the tiles. Attracting investors for a new company is key to expansion, and experiential events proved successful in advertising the unique technology. For example, in small installations the tiles feature a central LED that lights up when someone walks over it, using only 5% of the footfall energy but engaging the individual with the effect.
Successful experiential installations were created, for example, at West Ham Tube at the London 2012 Olympic Village, where footsteps were used to power street lighting, a human powered dancefloor, featuring an interactive Lightbox at Somerset House in London, and an installation using dancing feet at Bestival on the Isle of Wight enabled to charge mobile phones. The latter proved the 5mm tiles durability in mud, rain and heavy foot traffic. Several permanent installations have been built into schools to incorporate teaching in sustainable energy with utilising students footfalls, to power interactive LED display boards and integrated wireless technology.
So, wave goodbye to the concrete slab, and get running!
