August 9th, 2006
East Japan Railway Company To Harness Subway Ticket Gates as Energy Source
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
As a former subway commuter back in my New York City days, I can attest to one thing - those turnstiles never stop turning, especially during rush hour.
What if you could harness all that turning or walking around and generate electricity? Sound far-fetched?A railway company in Japan is planning to harness the movement of people through ticket gates to generate electricity.
The East Japan Railway Company (JR-East), as part of research aimed at developing more environmentally friendly train stations, is testing an experimental system that produces electricity as people pass through ticket gates. JR claims that this sort of human-powered electricity generation system may provide a portion of the electricity consumed at train stations in the future.The ticket gate electricity generation system relies on a series of piezo elements embedded in the floor under the ticket gates, which generate electricity from the pressure and vibration they receive as people step on them. Source: Orgismo.com
We Say: Sounds great but we are one stop away from turning humans into those poor mule teams that clomped around in a circle all day to power a mill.
ed3 says:
> We Say: Sounds great but we are one stop away from turning humans into
> those poor mule teams that clomped around in a circle all day to power
> a mill.
We already do that. Voluntarily. They are called “gyms”.
Wouldn’t take much to turn those treadmills or bikes into generators.
August 9th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Alice says:
That’s a great idea!
August 9th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Leonard says:
“The ticket gate electricity generation system relies on a series of piezo elements embedded in the floor under the ticket gates, which generate electricity from the pressure and vibration they receive as people step on them.”
Why not use this on busy sidewalks or roads even? Can you imagine street and traffic lights powered by batteries that were charged by rush hour traffic and solar panels? Busy roads might even generate more power than they use, which could be used to power roads with less traffic.
August 9th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
East Japan Railway Company To Harness Subway Ticket Gates As Energy Source
Alice Hill of RealTechNews writes: As a former subway commuter back in my New York City days, I can attest to one thing - those turnstiles never stop turning, especially during rush hour. What if you could harness all that turning or walking around and…
August 10th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
John Brada says:
Edison had a similar contraption. When his visitors complained of the stiff entrance gate hinges, it turned out he was using them to pump the water from the well upstairs to the cisterns.He was a shrewd old coot and stingy besides.
August 13th, 2006 at 11:53 am
hughbartling.com says:
Cutting CO2 Emissions in Japan…
Takamitsu Sawa–a prominent policy analyst working on environmental issues in Japan–has an informative article in the Japan Times on how Japan might reduce its CO2 emissions.
His main policy recommendation is to build more light-rail lines. …
October 28th, 2006 at 6:48 am
ZCZC says:
窃听器
August 8th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Stephan says:
“We Say: Sounds great but we are one stop away from turning humans into those poor mule teams that clomped around in a circle all day to power a mill. ”
That’s nonsense. They aren’t making people do anything they aren’t already doing. Alternative energy is about diversity and thinking outside the box. I think this is a great idea.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am