Mighty Powerful Paving

Excuse the pun but .....  a bright spark has an idea to harvest energy from pedestrians footsteps. 

Inventor Laurence Kemball-Cook, from London, has come up with the idea of a paving stone placed in a busy street and when stepped on it stores the kinetic energy produced.  The patented “Pavegen System” could power lights, computers, automatic doors and ticket machines at tube stations. Five hours of footfall would be enough to power the lights on a bus stop all night. 

A green light mounted in the stone, glows brighter the more energy it has stored. Laurence patented his design shortly after graduating Loughborough University in June and spent three months developing a prototype capable of lasting for 10 years. Even the rubber used on the surface of the stone is environmentally sound - it is made from recycled lorry tyres.  Laurence is now in discussions with councils, transport authoriites and shops to sell the paving stones. He said: ‘I could see it being rolled out all over London.  Imagine how much energy could be stored from a single days shopping on Oxford Street” 

Go to www.pavegensystems.com for more information.