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Down on the (crowd) farm

Harnessing energy from human movement.

Although you may not be conscious of it, you are ex- erting energy at this very moment. When you move, the energy of that action is displaced onto objects, such as the pages of this magazine, the cup in your hand or the seat of your chair. What if this energy could be harvested to power a toaster, for example, or other household appliances?

James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S., are cultivating this type of micropower through what they call a “crowd farm.” They’ve devised a flooring system made of blocks that rub together from the pressure of feet walking over them to produce electricity. Crowd farms could be situated in high-traffic areas, such as train stations, potentially producing enough electricity to illuminate signs. The Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is building similar flooring, with energy from dancers doing the boogie or the jitterbug expected to generate enough electricity to power LED lights underfoot.

California Fitness Center in Hong Kong has also joined the movement by transforming the energy produced by members as they exercise into electricity that turns on fluorescent lights overhead. The project was initiated by Lucien Gambarota, a Hong Kong-based renewable-energy entrepreneur who retrofitted the club’s exercise machines using components that included a broken washing machine. If all 13 machines are in use, the 300 watts generated is enough to power three television sets, five 60-watt light bulbs or 60 cellphones.

While such innovations may not herald the demise of the conventional electric company, they do give new meaning to the term “people power.”