Photo courtesy the University of Kansas

Last Saturday, a basketball game between the University of Kansas and Michigan played out a little differently than usual. The court where the game was held (Allen Fieldhouse) was powered entirely by the elliptical machines (in use) at the student recreation center. The machines were recently outfitted with a ReRev system which converts the kinetic energy produced during a person’s workout into usable energy that is transferred to the school’s central power grid. This is a prime example of how simple it is to harness otherwise wasted energy and put it to great use!

[Via: Snews]

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Using electrical devices while hiking in the woods is sacrilege tantamount to pitching a tent in a restaurant or building a fire in the break room. Cell phones and laptops have no place on the trail. The punishment for those who violate this rule should be extreme and without pity. Then again, it might be nice to charge the digital camera on a week-long venture…and bigfoot research might even advance past a Georgian freezer if electronic tracking equipment could be powered indefinitely. Ethical issues aside, the ability to get a charge while hiking is upon us.

Suspended load packs created by University of Pennsylvania researchers are harnessing electrical energy by converting the up and down motion of backpack springs to mechanical energy. Packs with loads of 40 to 80 pounds can generate as much as 7.4 Watts. For an idea of the kind of problems this could potentially create on the trail, cell phones require less than one Watt to power.

According to University of Pennsylvania researcher Larry Rome (in a press release put out by the office of university communications), “The Suspended-load Backpack could help anyone with a need for power on the go, including researchers, soldiers, disaster relief-workers or someone just looking to keep a mobile phone charged during a long trek.” Ugh.

Like this? Check out Jessica A. Knoblauch’s great article in Plenty on some of the wildest energy sources spawned by the green movement.

[Via: Plenty]

[Photo Via: R.W.W.]