Pedestrians: Steps to greener power
ENERGY created by pedestrians pounding the pavements is being converted into electricity in an innovative green power scheme.
Paving slabs with built-in sensors capture energy caused by people’s footsteps and store it in a battery for use later.
City officials in Toulouse, south-west France, hope that if the two-week trial proves a success they could collect energy from people walking during the day to power street lights at night, when there are fewer people out and about.
Deputy mayor Alexandre Marciel, who is in charge of sustainable development, said: “This system, unique in the world, allows us to anticipate a whole series of applications for the city.”
The smart paving slabs were invented by a Dutch firm Jaap Van der Braak.