Friday, September 12, 2008 Peña: Human Power By Rox Peña E-ssue
ENVIRONMENTAL concerns and the rising cost of fossil fuels are encouraging the search for clean and renewable energy sources. Solar, wind and ocean wave have the most potential and are now the subject of extensive research to make them more reliable and cheap.
But there's one energy source that's not fully exploited but has a great potential: human power. It's clean, free and readily available. While others say the energy output of a single individual is almost negligible, I believe it is substantial when multiplied a million times.
For example, if a person can produce at least 50 watts, a million people can produce 50 MW, which is enough to supply the whole of Clark Freeport Zone. Or looking at it in another way, that's huge savings in fuel, a lot of greenhouse gas avoided and less pollution emitted.
Human power is actually nothing new. Bicycles, rickshaws and boats are human-powered and so are manual tools. So why not use human power for generating electricity? To make it convenient and practical, electricity-generating devices can be integrated into regular human activities. That's hitting two birds with one stone.
An example of this integration is in physical fitness. This idea is already a reality. Green Microgym in Portland, U.S.A., collects and utilizes human-powered energy from its fitness bikes. The 2,800-square foot gym, owned by Adam Boesel, a former grade teacher, is said to be the first human powered gym in the U.S. It says in its website that "The Team Dynamo" and "Spin Bikes" collectively generate up to 350 watts continuous which runs some of its other equipment.
The gym's equipment geared up to the gym's mains includes fitness bikes, treadmills, and elliptical trainers. At the moment, the treadmills are 30-percent powered by the energy generated by humans. Four spin bikes (which do not require electricity) generate 200 to 600 watts of energy an hour, depending on how fanatic the person using it is. A similar gym is already up and running in Hong Kong.
And would you believe that dancing could also generate electricity? The Surya nightclub in London King's Cross has a piezoelectric dance floor that utilizes the kinetic energy created by dancing clubbers and converts it into electricity. The club owners believe that up to 60 percent of the club's electricity needs will be powered by this unique dance floor.
Underneath the dance floor are springs and a series of power-generating blocks made from quartz crystals and ceramics. The blocks produce a small electric current when squashed, which is fed into nearby batteries.
The batteries are constantly recharged by clubbers throughout the night, and the electricity produced is used to power the club's lights, sound system and more. Now that's what I call "electrifying" moves.
Even walking can generate enough electricity to power a cellphone. Scientists have built a backpack that turns the spring in a human step into electricity for cell phone. This device would allow soldiers, rescue workers, and field scientists -- all of whom use several electronic instruments such as cellphones and GPS locators -- to leave bulky and heavy replacement batteries at home.
Inventors designed the backpack -- which they say is more comfortable than the average backpack -- to make use of the natural up-and-down motion of a person's stride to generate electricity, either for immediate use or for storage.
Clean, free, no generation and transmission losses, no PPA. Great.
