Brazilian slums get first player-powered football pitch
Energy is no more just a need now, it’s a necessity. The energy crisis and rising emission rates are forcing inventors to go for renewable energy sources along with shifting to bio-fuel and electric powered vehicles.
Amidst this crisis, we came across the first football pitch ever to harness kinetic energy from player movements. The pitch was launched by Brazilian football legend Pele in the slums of Rio De Janeiro.
200 energy-capturing tiles are laid under the turf, which work on a system of cogs. The tiles are designed by British manufacturer Pavegne, while the pitch was refurbished by oil company Shell.
Commenting on the technical part of its operation, head of Pavegen, Laurence Kemball-Cook says,
When stepped on, the cogs spin like tops and act like generators. We’ve effectively turned this community into a real-life science experiment. I believe this technology can be one of the future ways we illuminate our cities.
The titles will supply energy to the floodlights in combination to solar panels installed around the field. Presently, these energy harnessing tiles are a costly deal. Each one of them cost about $500 for this football field. However, the rates are likely to come down as the demand of such technologies will rise.
It’s not the first time that these tiles were used to harness energy from steps. A train station in Europe, Terminal 3 of London’s Heathrow Airport, and shopping centres in Australian have already installed these tiles. However, it’s the first time that these tiles were installed in a football field; a place with abundant foot movements. Well, no doubt, the future pavements, floors, roads or any surface that comes in contact with human movement is going to be converted into energy harnessing sources.
