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This is one I find very exciting, practically drooling at the endless possibilities:
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A Sainsbury's store in Gloucester will open the chain's first "people-powered" store this week using technology which captures energy from vehicles to power its checkouts.
In a European first, Sainsbury's will install the invention at its new store which opens this Wednesday. Whenever a vehicle passes over the "kinetic road plates" positioned in the car park, energy is captured which would otherwise be wasted. Sainsbury's will channel the energy back into the store, saving power that would normally be taken from the National Grid.
The kinetic road plates are expected to produce 30kW of green energy an hour, which is more than enough to power the store's checkouts.
The system, pioneered for Sainsbury's by Peter Hughes of Highway Energy Systems, does not affect the car or fuel efficiency, and drivers feel no disturbance as they drive over the plates.
Alison Austin, Sainsbury's environment manager, said: "This is revolutionary. Not only are we the first to use such cutting-edge technology with our shoppers, but customers can now play a very active role in helping make their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost.
"We want to continue offering great value but we also want to make the weekly shop sustainable. Using amazing technology like this helps us reduce our use of carbon and makes Sainsbury's a leading energy-efficient business."
The kinetic road plates are one of a number of energy-saving measures at Sainsbury's green store in the new Gloucester Quays development.
Over two years, the store will harvest enough rainwater to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which will be used to flush the store's toilets. Solar thermal panels will heat up to 100% of the store's hot water during the summer, and more than 90% of the construction waste was re-used or recycled.
David Sheehan, director of store development and construction at Sainsbury's, said: "The new environmental features within the Gloucester Quays store mark a very exciting time in store development.
"We are able to use cutting-edge technology to improve our services and the store environment for our customers and colleagues, at the same time as ultimately reducing our carbon footprint across the UK."
Source: kn.theiet.org/news/jun09/...y-system.cfm
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Is this being used in the U.S.? Where?
Store parking lots that have main entrances are an excellent idea. I'm thinking gas stations, convenience stores, even the drive-through for restaurants. Schools, any kind of main parking lots (like for BART or public transit), businesses. Main roadways could contribute to their own street lighting. Same with freeways.
Shipping and distribution centers as well as truck stops. Things that get a ton of traffic all the time, or frequently enough to make it very worthwhile installing.
I don't know anything about this technology other than just reading the article, so I'm going to do a little looking around later and see what I can find. If anyone else has links or articles, I'd love to read them. Hopefully this subject hasn't been exhausted previously, because it's NEW TO ME.
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A Sainsbury's store in Gloucester will open the chain's first "people-powered" store this week using technology which captures energy from vehicles to power its checkouts.
In a European first, Sainsbury's will install the invention at its new store which opens this Wednesday. Whenever a vehicle passes over the "kinetic road plates" positioned in the car park, energy is captured which would otherwise be wasted. Sainsbury's will channel the energy back into the store, saving power that would normally be taken from the National Grid.
The kinetic road plates are expected to produce 30kW of green energy an hour, which is more than enough to power the store's checkouts.
The system, pioneered for Sainsbury's by Peter Hughes of Highway Energy Systems, does not affect the car or fuel efficiency, and drivers feel no disturbance as they drive over the plates.
Alison Austin, Sainsbury's environment manager, said: "This is revolutionary. Not only are we the first to use such cutting-edge technology with our shoppers, but customers can now play a very active role in helping make their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost.
"We want to continue offering great value but we also want to make the weekly shop sustainable. Using amazing technology like this helps us reduce our use of carbon and makes Sainsbury's a leading energy-efficient business."
The kinetic road plates are one of a number of energy-saving measures at Sainsbury's green store in the new Gloucester Quays development.
Over two years, the store will harvest enough rainwater to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which will be used to flush the store's toilets. Solar thermal panels will heat up to 100% of the store's hot water during the summer, and more than 90% of the construction waste was re-used or recycled.
David Sheehan, director of store development and construction at Sainsbury's, said: "The new environmental features within the Gloucester Quays store mark a very exciting time in store development.
"We are able to use cutting-edge technology to improve our services and the store environment for our customers and colleagues, at the same time as ultimately reducing our carbon footprint across the UK."
Source: kn.theiet.org/news/jun09/...y-system.cfm
------
Is this being used in the U.S.? Where?
Store parking lots that have main entrances are an excellent idea. I'm thinking gas stations, convenience stores, even the drive-through for restaurants. Schools, any kind of main parking lots (like for BART or public transit), businesses. Main roadways could contribute to their own street lighting. Same with freeways.
Shipping and distribution centers as well as truck stops. Things that get a ton of traffic all the time, or frequently enough to make it very worthwhile installing.
I don't know anything about this technology other than just reading the article, so I'm going to do a little looking around later and see what I can find. If anyone else has links or articles, I'd love to read them. Hopefully this subject hasn't been exhausted previously, because it's NEW TO ME.
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Re: Kinetic Road Plates for power!
Sun, June 28, 2009 - 5:51 AMHere's more, links:
Company site, Hughes Research:
www.hughesresearch.co.uk/
Picture of the plates at Sainsbury here:
www.guardian.co.uk/environm...eed-bumps
Challenge, make all "worthy" items meet the 1% rule:
earthblips.dailyradar.com/story...te_of/
People plates, in Japan:
www.economixt.com/tag/kinet...ad-plates/
I realize the argument against the plates not generating much power is sound. However, it's something, it's a place to start, something to develop that may become better over time. And in conjunction with other options, it begins to make much more sense. -
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Unsu...
Re: Kinetic Road Plates for power!
Sun, June 28, 2009 - 6:04 AMJust one more link...LOL...it's a link off the Picture link...
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Speed bumps to get new role as a source of green energy
Moving vehicles will generate electricity for street lights and road signs in a London trial
* Rhodri Phillips
* The Observer, Sunday 8 February 2009
* Article history
"Green" speed bumps that will generate electricity as cars drive over them are to be introduced on Britain's roads. The hi-tech "sleeping policemen" will power street lights, traffic lights and road signs in a pilot scheme in London that could be rolled out nationwide.
Speed bumps have long been the bane of motorists' lives, but these will capture the kinetic energy of vehicles.
Peter Hughes, the designer behind the idea, said: "They are speed bumps, but they are not like conventional speed bumps. They don't damage your car or waste petrol when you drive over them - and they have the added advantage that they produce energy free of charge." An engineer who formerly advised the United Nations on renewable energy sources, Hughes added: "If it [the energy] wasn't harnessed by the speed bumps, it would go to waste."
The ramps - which cost between £20,000 and £55,000, depending on size - consist of a series of panels set in a pad virtually flush to the road. As the traffic passes over it, the panels go up and down, setting a cog in motion under the road. This then turns a motor, which produces mechanical energy. A steady stream of traffic passing over the bump can generate 10-36kW of power.
The bumps can each produce between £1 and £3.60 of energy an hour for up to 16 hours a day, or between £5,840 and £21,024 a year. Energy not used immediately can be stored or fed into the national grid.
"With a steady flow of traffic, four of the ramps used as speed bumps would be enough to power all the street lights, traffic lights and road signs for a mile-long stretch of street. The ramp is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles. It is not only green energy; it is free energy, once you have paid for the capital cost of the equipment," said Hughes. "The full potential of this is absolutely enormous." Hughes claims that 10 ramps could generate the same power as one wind turbine.
The "electro-kinetic road ramp" system can either be raised to act as a speed bump or laid flat, so that drivers don't realise they are passing over it.
A spokesman for Ealing council in west London confirmed that £150,000 of funding had been secured for the scheme: "The money is there for the scheme in 2009-10," she said. "The details - how many speed bumps there will be and where they will be - still needs to be finalised. It is an innovative idea. We are excited to be part of it."
Hughes said he had been in talks with more than 200 councils interested in introducing the system, as well supermarket chain Morrisons about a flat version of the ramp at its depot in Sittingbourne, Kent.
Speed humps were introduced in the UK in 1981. There are an estimated 30,000 in London and at least that number in the rest of the country. Conventional speed humps cost about £2,000 each.
A nightclub opened in Rotterdam in the Netherlands last year that is run partly on energy generated by people dancing. Last year, it was also reported that pedestrians' footsteps could be used to power lighting at shopping centres.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk/environm...eed-bumps
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It always helps to know how much it costs and how much can be generated/saved.
Parts that caught my eye:
10 ramps could generate the same power as one wind turbine.
pedestrians' footsteps could be used to power lighting at shopping centres.
Not just shopping, again, but I'm thinking schools too. Most of the buildings at the colleges and university I have attended (and even remembering wayyyyy back to high school, junior high and the endless elementary schools) there are main entrances with enclosed halls.
Hotels, motels, convention centers, all have steady auto and people traffic. Airports too.
Anyone else think of places it might work?
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