Pavegen is a London based technology company that creates flooring that harnesses the energy of footsteps to charge a Tesla. Pavegen generates energy from footsteps, each time someone walks over the tile up to 7 watts (7 Joules) of energy is generated.
YouTube link
(thanks Lee)
2 comment(s):
"Up to 7 watts is generated" is meaningless. If you're charging a bettery a watt (or indeed 7) is a meaningless measure unless you know for how long that amount of energy was produced. Seven watts for a millisecond is next to nothing. For a second is still very little, but a thousand times more charge than four a millisecond.
It's similar to those claims that a wind farm can power 50,000 homes. Is that 50,000 homes on a warm wednesday afternoon in July when everybody is at work or school, no appliances are in use and and the lights and heating are off. Our is that 50,000 homes on a cold s Sunday evening in December when all the lights and heating are on and everybody is at home? And what if the atmospheric pressure is high on that Sunday evening? The air will be extra child so the heating will be working extra hard, but there will be no wind. Well the wind farm still power 50,000 homes then?
That's the thing about those involved in "sustainable" energy. They don't seem to be able to talk in meaningful units of measurement.
It is a red flag for me when folks equate units that are not the same. 1 Watt is 1 Joule every second, so 7 W does not equal 7 J. The Joules are probably the right unit here, and that means this would not really work to charge a Tesla.
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