The floodlights of a new soccer field in Brazil are the world’s first to be powered by footsteps.
Located in a hilly slum near the center of Rio de Janiero, the soccer field features an energy technology called Pavegen, which generates electricity from the player’s movement.
A total of 200 Pavegen panels are installed beneath the field to capture the players' kinetic energy during games. The panels, which are complemented by a solar PV system, can power the floodlights for 10 hours on a full battery.
Laurence Kemball-Cook, the primary inventor of the technology, founded the start-up company Pavegen in England in 2009.
Pavegen has installed smaller numbers of panels at several sites in England, including Heathrow Airport, several schools and a London tube station.
Like virtually every promising but pre-commercial power generating technology, Pavegen’s primary problem is price.
It is expensive – and probably too expensive for all but the most eco-consciousness consumers.
Even with financial support for the soccer field project provided by Shell Oil, the cost of playing on the field is more than local residents can afford. On weekdays, each team must pay about $20 an hour to play on the new soccer field.
"We are still developing this technology in such a way as to bring down the cost," said Kemball-Cook in an interview with the AFP on Wednesday.
