When the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) decided to invest in alternative energy sources, it only had to look to its users for the perfect source of energy. Recently the company decided to update their Tokyo Station with a revolutionary new piezoelectric energy generating floor. The system will harvest the kinetic energy generated by crowds to power ticket gates and display systems!
Photo by Tinou Bao
Piezoelectric flooring is a technology with a wide range of applications that is slowly being adopted in the race to develop alternative energy sources. After all, human power is readily available in pretty much any area with heavy foot traffic, such as a dancefloor, or a tourist attractions. Naturally, we were excited to hear that JR East will be installing these systems in the floor of one of busiest subway stations on the planet.
JR East has been trialing these systems for the past year. They have recently improved and expanded the system by changing the floor covering from rubber to stone tiles, and have improved the layout of the mechanisms to improve energy generation. The total amount of floor-space will add up to around 25 square meters, and they expect to obtain over 1,400kw per day – more than enough to power their systems.
+ East Japan Railway Company
Via Tech-On
This is great way to generate sustainable energy. In the Netherlands we have some more of those concepts like an human powered door: http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=5610
And here is another revolution in doors, the energy saving door s: http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=6688
Have more nice projects with human power. Interested, leave a comment, and i will post more.
Things sound good, but what is the cost involved in such installation, and how much power it can generate per sq inch matters a lot.
I’m really interested to know better about piezoelettric system and his applications. Could have a great developement in my area .Can I have more address about companies that propose this system? Thank you very much. Davide Giusti
please let me know what is its efficiency per square meter n what will be its setup cost..and where should i contact if i want to install it at any place..??
upto 1,400 kw for 25 sq meters….
thats what they expect it to be in the subway station.
i think it would vary a lot.
co szukalem, dzieki
I just got a new tattoo and tried H2ocean and it burned my skin and tattoo is scabbing..Anyone have any ideas on something that actually works?
wat is the installation cost?
Have these floors ever been used in gyms for exercise classes? It seems like aerobics or something like Zumba would really pound out some watts in a short period of time.
I´m really very interested to know piezoelectric systems and his applications. More exactly I would want to know If we can get piezoelectrics polymers.I would like to know how we can give these properties to the polymer by adding some type of load.