The New York Times reports on a cutting-edge London architecture firm who have come up with a genius plan to harvest free green electricity from human footsteps:
The average human being generates about eight watts of energy with each step, most of which is expended as vibration. It may not sound like much, but take the 30,000 or more people who pass through a major-city subway hub at rush hour, and suddenly you’ve got serious power. That’s usually a problem for architects and engineers, who have to design structures to withstand such small but persistent pressure. But the Facility, a London architecture firm, sees it as an opportunity. The company proposes putting small hydraulic generators in floors to capture vibration and convert it into electricity.
Read the full story at the New York Times.
Prince Charles continues to make changes to his lifestyle, making him the greenest royal in the UK.
The prince will replace carbon-heavy private jets and helicopters with scheduled flights and train services.
Next week, he will take delivery of Jaguar cars adapted to run on biodiesel fuel, while royal residences such as Highgrove in Gloucestershire will switch to green electricity.
Aides said using cleaner transport such as national rail services was now a priority for the prince and his staff, but that this would happen only “where appropriate”. They ruled out the heir to the throne travelling across London on the tube or arriving at official functions by bicycle.
(via: Guardian Unlimited)
This is the sort of news story I’d like to be seeing more of…
The BBC reports that a McDonald’s restaurant in Devon is closing because it’s can’t compete with the local Tavistock farmers’ market.
“It just goes to show that the food is so good here we have seen them off.
“Because of the quality of our local food, McDonald’s has not been able to compete. I think there is definitely a link.
“We have made every effort to make Tavistock a haven for local food and McDonald’s wasn’t local food, so they suffered.”
John Taylor, Tavistock Forward and EatWise chairman
(via: Hugg & BBC)
