Energy-Generating Floors To Power Subway Displays In Tokyo

Jason Sahler writes "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."

Theft of services

Will I be compensated with lower fares for the reduction of my kinetic & potential energies, or will they just take it as profit?

ALL THE STUPID ELECTRICTY JOKES GO HERE

You would be shocked by the potential of this technology. It has the capacity to replace large amounts of electrical expenses. Much like you, I'd be revolted if they did not make the best use of this technology!

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The crowds in Shinjuku are abuzz upon hearing this news, but it seems to have polarized Japan's greater populace.

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Being a Ninja will be punished by a stiff fine.

The most important question is of course.....

How does it hold up against massive quantities of urine?

Re:The most important question is of course.....

it's Japan, not New York

Re:Theft of services

I think this is a pretty cool idea. I can imagine a gym being a great place to do something like this: people go there to "waste" energy (tread-mills, various exercise machines). If they can set up their machines to basically be human powered generators, set resistance based on power output, etc, they might be able to convince people they are helping save the environment. Or at least cut down their electricity costs a bit.

"You just burned 150 calories and generated X amount of electrical energy" OR "Please maintain a speed of above 5 miles per hour or the tv will lose power and shut off"

And what happens when the batteries drain?

I can just imagine the batteries draining and the users not familair with the system getting off of a train to find there is no way to exit the gates.

Of course, they'll then stomp their feet in anger - hopefully hard enough to blink the ticket gates functional again.

Ah - innovation.

What a waste

I have a hard time believing that installing thousands of tiny peizoelectric generators in the floor to be either a) better for the environment or b)profitable.

I would bet that the cost to the environment in producing these special devices, would be greater than the coal that would have been fed into a coal power plant to produce the same amount of power.

Re:What a waste

SHHHH. The Green Movement is about feeling good, not consuming less.

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but you are overlooking the smug factor

Think of how much smug this will release into the atmosphere! The thick, massive smug clouds will certainly cool the Earth by a degree or two.

Re:What a good idea!

You're wrong, and to prove it, I'll make a supposition with no factual basis whatsoever: I would bet that the cost to the environment in producing these special devices will be far less than the coal that would have to be fed into a coal power plant to produce the same amount of power.

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Just stewing this over in my brain I was astonished by the possibilities.

Human activity follows a semi-diurnal cycle and in something like a subway station your peak generating capacity would be when masses of people are using the stations, let's say from 6 am to 9 am, 4 pm to 6 pm. Wherever this technology is applied you would need a certain level of foot traffic to make it cost effective.

Imagine this on the floors of airline terminals, sports stadiums, very busy downtown areas (sidewalks in the New York b

Not Just Theft of Services, Theft of Calories

It may be a joke that they are stealing PE and KE, but they really are making it slightly harder to walk around. Thus the user will be doing more work- ie- burning more calories.

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They're trying to power a subway, not the LHC.

Deja Vu, circa 2002?

Is this a totally independent outbreak of imbecility, or is it related to the SD article from ~2002?

This piezoelectric idea is never going to recover the initial cost of construction and installation.

To generate real amounts of power at near zero cost, just let the people walk up the escalator and harness the power of the steps going backwards.

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> So what if it doesn't recover the monetary investment? Things would be a lot better off it PROFIT! wasn't the sole motivation behind any decision.

How? It took energy to make those floor devices. If they don't ever generate as much energy as it took to make them, we've wasted energy. How are we better off wasting energy?

Moreover if the things are really inefficient, then it means you're turning the people's food energy to nothing. It took a lot of energy and $$$ to feed those folks. Again, we're was

I can hear it now...

"The ticket will cost 100 yen and 5 jumping jacks."

Interesting

There are forklifts driving back and forth on the production floor here at my place of work. If those 10,000 lb forklifts carrying 2,000 lb loads were driving over piezoelectric energy generating floors, how much energy could be harnessed? Certainly not enough to offset the cost in the short term, which is the only term my employer seems to comprehend.

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Just tell them about all the energy savings and cartoon birds will start flying around their heads as a giant smile grows on their face.

Summary Error

"The system will harvest the kinetic energy generated by crowds..."

No, it will harness the POTENTIAL energy change in the compression of the floor plates by a distance D with force F. The energy lost by the person and gained by the floor (neglecting efficiency losses) would then be F * D.

Bad summary, Bad

Godzilla

just imagine how much energy can be harvested this way the next time Godzilla rampages! Energy independence, AND the project will pay for itself in about a 40 minute feature film. Of course, then you have to rebuild it and wait for the next rampage for the new project to pay off...

Re:The Matrix...

was there ever any doubt that something involving humans living their entire lives hooked up to machines via tentaclelike hoses *wouldnt* come from japan? :-p

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The article talks about a 25 square meter area producing 1400 kW per day.

Meep.

You lose.

Watts are not an energy unit.

1. It could be 1.4 MWh per day, which is 5.04 GJ per day, which averages to 58.3 kW constant power.
2. Or 1.4 MW averaged over a day (now that's ridiculous).
3. Or 1.4 MJ per day, that averages to 16W constant power, what's ridiculously low.

My bets are on #1 (58.3 kW averaged).

To give an idea on how much power this is, it is 530 Amps under 110 V. A typical house has a 100 A circuit. So it's generating about the maximum allowed power usage for a little bit over 5 ho

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Wait wait...I have the solution!

Install some of the piezo-things under the train and have the train roll over the tiles, creating the energy to levitate it!!!

Brilliant! ;-)