Small Steps

Scientists are working on a way to transfer the small steps crowds make in places like Grand Central Station or Victoria Station in London to usable energy.

You’ve got the power. In fact, each of you is a little power plant.

Did you know that every time you take a step, you generate six to eight watts of energy? But then — poof! — it dissipates into the air.

If only you could capture it.

An architectural firm in London is now looking at ways to capture that energy on a large scale and turn it into electricity. For example, 34,000 people walk or dash through Victoria Station in one hour, rushing toward their trains. That’s a lot of steps. “If you harness that energy,” says the firm’s director, “you can actually generate a very useful power source.”

According to Fast Company (September 2006), this architectural firm is working to develop vibration-harvesting sensors. These sensors would be implanted in the structure of train stations, bridges, factories or any other building frequently rattled by commuters,

vehicles or machinery. The devices could capture the rumblings of all this...