Human Powered Partying

We generate electricity. Fact. And apparently we do so in particular when we move.  According to Nasa, we generate 1 – 2 Watts with every footstep.

So of course, what better way to power a club than to harness the raw energy that already exists on the dance-floor. A link here to how it works.

Clubs in London (Surya) and Rotterdam (Watt) have launched themselves as eco-friendly clubs using this technology, with the power of the club being harnessed from the vibrations of people dancing on the dance floor.

However, as a user-review on this London based ratings site says “While the decor may be admirable in its dedication to all things recyclable, its organic wine of top standard and its ethnics outstanding – it still begs the question: how do you get an energy-generating dancefloor to, well, generate electricity, when there’s no-one in the ‘club’ in the first place?”

Or what if the DJ plays bad music? Or what if you can’t actually install a dancefloor like this?

No problem, a much more direct way of user-generated energy, and one that is utterly compatible with the knee-deep mud of festivals in the UK, are the Wellies that are being promoted by Orange.

These were trialled this year at Glastonbury, and apparently walking around for 12 hours gets you enough energy to power an ipod. Hmmmm.