In "Small steps in Dupont Circle add up to strides toward cleaner energy", Turner reported the existence of "smart tiles" on Connecticut Avenue in Washington. The "smart tiles" utilize pedestrian's footsteps to create energy for outdoor street lighting. Pavegen, the company that create these tiles, claimed that each stride can generate 30 seconds for a street lamp. The "smart tiles" in Washington are the first in the United States and this is the first "stride toward cleaner energy" of the United States.
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My response
When I had my eyes on this news, I think it could be one of the answers to global energy problems. I think cost benefit analysis is necessary to evaluate the technology.
Some might be curious that what I mean by saying "Recycling our Energy." When we walk or run, we use our energy, in calories. If there are these tiles on the floor then we could recycle this energy into real energy.
As far as energy is concerned, these tiles are energy generator. Therefore, many might think that they definitely save energy and thus we use less fuel energy. Is that so? Not necessarily. What about tiles' material. These tiles might be made of plastic or the like substance and instead of save energy, we might exhaust more energy than not using these tiles.
Perhaps this is not really useful in Thailand, where it is sunny all year long, so solar cell tech is more practical here.
This tech, however, reminds me of my dream. I mean the dream that I had at night. some similar technology but in different aspect. the tiles in my dream make people on them moved in any direction. They were really convenient and comfortable.
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Reference
- Turner, K. (2016, November 21). Small steps in Dupont Circle add up to strides toward cleaner energy. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/11/19/new-tiles-harness-the-energy-of-footsteps-in-washington-d-c/
"Cost benefit analysis" - where else have we seen that phrase recently? I'm reminded of Ae's earlier post today. Are you?
ReplyDeleteDen's concluding paragraph reminds me of a cool scene in the 2nd film in the X-Men series, when Magneto escapes from his prison where the puny regular humans had locked him away. A fun film.
When I read Den's blog, It make me to look at youtube for Pavegen, the company that create the special tiles. I want to see how many project that they have been implementing and when they started.
ReplyDeleteI think different from Den's Idea. I accept that this kind of tiles might use more material and consumed more energy at the beginning state same like every innovations. But when it world-wide used, the cost could be reduce and they might generate more energy that they exhausted.