Pavegen | Fully Charged

[@benpaynter]

Is he seriously suggesting this floor is going to cost only 5% more than a conventional floor. The additional work to wire it in, connect it to the power supply in the building and transform it to a usable supply would massively exceed the 5% let alone the the cost of materials and manufacture. Its s nice idea but really does seem too far fetched to be commercially viable.

[@unknowndomain]

Bit like when TfL priced up the cost of the cable car and excluded the price of legal fees, land, etc...

[@deathpony698]

and it has bluetooth, that shit isnt cheep

[@josephdykes1820]

Ben Paynter Maybe 5℅ more after energy production and the money they get for selling the info on you

[@peradetlic5646]

My thought exactly, it would cost more like 5 times than other floors, not 5% more... Has few nice ideas in the whole story (the actual generator with a flywheel is pretty interesting), but I give it less than 1% of a chance that it would be economical/practical to use it for generating electricity from footsteps....

[@Biskawow]

its a scam project, like many others that are popping up lately.

[@loungelizard836]

You're a month early Robert. It's March 1, not April Fools day!

[@BrackenDawson]

My engineer senses are tingling, back of the envelope time: This makes it harder to walk, it seems to drop about 1cm, given an 80cm average step, that's like walking up a 1.25% slope uphill. Your grandmother with a 20cm step will experience e a 5% slope, that's quite a serious hill to tackle continuously on top of the existing grade. So there's mobility issues before we even get to balance. I don't think this will generate much power. The shell demo states that it charges batteries continuously and uses those to power floodlights, it does not say how long you can keep the floodlights on. This outfit do not release specifics on their energy output despite having test units out there. If it does drop 1cm, given the average weight of 70kg, this means the energy on offer is 6.8 Joules or 0.002 Wh per step. How many steps are there? Let's take the train arriving example. A Pendelino can carry 469 people in 9 cars. They walk on average 2.25 car lengths to exit the station at the middle of the train, Another 469 people walk the other way onto the train, so there were no standing passengers, but all the seated ones got off and more got on, a pretty generous case. The cars are about 24m so we're looking at about 40,500 steps, or about 81Wh of energy if the system is 100% efficient. That will not keep the platform lights on until the next train. Practically I think the efficiency will be closer to 10% than 100, and I think 1cm is far too much drop for comfort and accessibility. The real figure for a station platform full of these would not fully charge a modest smartphone when a big train arrives. My opinion; theres better uses of human effort than this company.

[@mareck6946]

less wokouts needed! :p

[@2649876]

My tech spider sence also rang as a hell. Thats such a rare moments when I am happy to live in a capitalistic marketplace economy. This idea will just die because of basic economy. Also when I wish them good luck. They still do something better for the world then most of us.

[@jarlnieminen4307]

You mean it's saving your joints too amazing.

[@aresgod112]

While in China , grandmas of 90 years are doing the square dance , I think this is something that could get our grandmas back in action :))

[@dinkog4740]

I support this point of view . I was going to write similar concerns . The Law of The Energy is - Energy never lost - only transform and this equipment will subtracting the energy from body internal mechanism for saving it .

[@DanFrederiksen]

I'm afraid not. In the simple case, due to conservation of energy, any energy generated is taken from the person, meaning you have to work harder, akin to walking in sand. Only in very specific parts of the walk cycle where the body has to absorb would it make sense, like walking down stairs. And even then it would be too little energy to really matter.

[@DanFrederiksen]

I think he would be much better off branching out to cost optimized house windmills. The concept has been aired before, for cars too. It doesn't fly.

[@ChrisBeard]

mipmipmipmipmip because people have the option to drive around a subway station.

[@KLiNorge]

Not even close to walking on sand, more like walking on grass

[@funkydunky1430]

Kevin Lyons you are wrong. grass does not compact as near as sand under your foot.

[@TheMijman]

Not really, the minute energy cost would be a tiny price to pay. energy used or expelled through walking goes to waste, heating up the ground and wearing it down. This transfers that waste into useful energy.

[@vedranlatin1386]

I hate to be negative, but as energy generation device the idea makes no sense from any angle other then novelty at a few handpicked locations. People will hate walking on it because it sinks (it has to have some vertical travel to actually produce energy). Assuming 10mm sink, 80kg person will generate 8 joule per step, so person walking a step a second can produce 8W. Let's say you can squeeze 4 persons to 1.6m2 (standard solar panel size), they will output 32W (if they are 100% efficient, which they are not) whereas the solar panel will be pumping out around 350W. Both will only get maximum output during a part of day, but I'd say it's safe to assume that solar panels will on average trump utilization of floor panels that are hard to walk on. And it's not like they are free to install, or maintain, or even available to buy off the shelf. Sorry guys, but you're wasting your time and probably funding that could have gone to something actually useful. Sounds much too much like Solar Freaking Roadways fiasco all over again :( But hey, don't believe me - do your own back-of-the-envelope calculations. I don't doubt Thunderf00t will sooner or later.

[@xxwookey]

If it produced 10W/m2 in something like a train station, then at busy times that's 1kW from a 10m x10m area. That's not entirely useless (and more than I expected). The capacity factor is going to be low in most places but maybe not too bad in tube station corridors. Then the question is how does the embodied energy compare with the flooring you'd put down instead. It would be good to get some numbers on it (c.f, LCA, W/m2), just to check whether there is any merit to it. It's just possible that it's not a total waste of space, although that is obviously a sensible place to start from.

[@thefrosty1925]

I think you, and other people, are missing the point. He never says that he hopes this to be thee alternative to other forms of renewable energy, it's just that this can supplement them. Like with him saying that they have them in Heathrow to power the lights in the hall in which these devices have been placed.

[@vedranlatin1386]

Not missing the point... if he said he was doing an art installation that would be all fine. Since he says the goal is to supplement other energy sources, his method must be at least close to efficiency of other methods and this one is far from - an order of magnitude to be exact. I'm not opposed to people doing this kind of research, but not doing some basic back-of-the-envelope calculations a high school student easily can do and then hoping for funding is irresponsible.

[@PeterStilwell]

but for the cost of the unit and installation/upkeep wouldn't it just be more cost efficient to go with solar panels? I have to say I agree with most of the posters here; it seems like a terribly petty amount of energy for the cost. That's why the guy is talking a lot about "enhancing people's lives" and getting "data" from the panels: it's not a realistic energy supply, it's a gimmick.

[@garn5341]

Not sure an "art installation" would be OK either. I understand it seems small, but if people are exhausted after an hour or two walking around, their experience wouldn't be positive. Even if they didn't understand why they felt exhausted, they wold most likely, in a unconscious way, be negative about the experience.

[@madsras42]

Very interesting stuff. You talked so much about how it downward pressure turns into rotational movement but I really wish there had been an animation or an exploded view showing how exactly it works.

[@Myuroh]

So many issues with this video. 1) At 4:19 they start jumping on the demo panels then conclude they could have powered a 30W light for "quite a few seconds". Nope. The display started at 150J and only went up by 46J with two people frantically jumping up and down. Also, note that the demo was not on the featured panel, it was a completely different panel. 2) I went to the Pavegen website and it is completely lacking in any real-world data. Why are they not telling us how much power their demo installations make? Isn't that a critical selling point? 3) The demo video at the Rio soccer pitch looks visually impressive but they state it also uses a solar panel and battery storage. 4) Regarding the panel they have that can withstand the weight of cars - you're just going to lower the fuel efficiency of the car so it does no good whatsoever. 5) At 6:57 he says "It's actually really hard to generate power in urban spaces". I guess this guy has never seen the Tesla Solar Roof. Dear Mr Llewellyn, please get an engineering consultant for your future videos. P.S. I'm not an engineer or a scientist so very happy to be told where this comment is flawed.

[@baxoutthebox5682]

This company would have failed by now if they hadn’t found a way to monetize through data monetization. That’s what they do, they harvest data without consent.

[@mrh112]

This project is totally ridiculous made by people who must know how stupid it is but are milking the new energy trend. The incredibly small amount of energy each step produces would take probably a few decades to barely cover the energy it cost to produce it in the first place. Then you have the fact walking on it would feel like walking on sand making walking very tiring. That bundled with the near intangible amount of current produced makes it just about able to power a calculator.

[@xxwookey]

Because it sags to a lower solid point I suspect it isn't like sand. It's like a gentle slope (1 in 80)

[@NotFound-up3si]

that's why shell is involved in it's development

[@C0deH0wler]

mrh112 Thousands of people. Thousands of people, man. And you don't have to cover the whole floor. Just the entrances.

[@garn5341]

It's not a "slope", it a "hill". as mentioned above.

[@Hagledesperado]

"And they only have to be produced once and last for 20 years" Yeah, and there's that ...

[@codemonkey2k5]

I loved reading all of the comments below from the hundreds of engineers that read up on all of the patents and who fully understand all of the specification and inner workings of this product. Everyone seems to know for a fact that it wont work because they clearly know how it is installed, how it is implemented, how energy from this device is stored throughout the day and how it feels to walk on it. After all, if a few others have tried something and failed, it just cant be done, right? I'm so glad that there are so many geniuses in here to warn us of this inevitable failure. Lets all just stop innovating now and save ourselves a whole lot of trouble.

[@C0deH0wler]

KZbin NEEDS to adopt Reddit's voting system.

[@codemonkey2k5]

Thank you for your thoughtful intelligent response, In short, I think that in places where thousands of people walk all day, like Grand Central Station for instance, or an airport, or a casino in Vegas, it would work just fine. The trick is to store power not try to use it as it is being made. There would need to be a storage medium to even out the output and cover slow times. Solar and Wind are way better options 90% of the time. But for the other 10% it is a great idea. Plus I think we should pull power from everywhere we can. Gone are the days were we feel like we need fission or fusion to power our towns. Power is literally everywhere. We just need to get better at collecting and storing it. That is where the future is in my opinion.

[@PeterStilwell]

Don't be facetious, you don't need to know the intricacies of the device to calculate the theoretical maximum possible energy generation and see that even a perfect design would yield such little energy that it could never be worthwhile.

[@xXJeReMiAhXx99]

tony I'm sorry your brain never matured

[@C0deH0wler]

Peter Stilwell There will be fucking tens of thousands of people. On like 30m of tiles. That will not tire people.

[@Wildeheart79]

Sorry but this is just stupid, I've got similar problems with the science to other posters but even more important is the ROI. If you've got to pave an entire street in these things at likely a pretty high cost per square foot and two people jumping up and down on it can only create enough energy to power one low energy lightpost (notice he said LED lightpost not the standard ones which use much more power) for 26 seconds then what's the point? You could pave the whole of Times Square with these things and make enough money at most to light a handful of lightposts for night when they're needed. YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE ENOUGH ENERGY TO LIGHT THE AREA YOU'VE PAVED! What is the point?

[@codemonkey2k5]

Every light in the town I live in is now LED. And the power from the pavers would not go directly to a light, it would go to a storage device and then to the light's. And in places Like New Your, there are lots of locations where the daily foot falls are many many thousands a day. That is a lot of kinetic energy no longer being wasted.

[@xXJeReMiAhXx99]

no they won't go to power LED, storage or anything else, because it's trash and will never be used, there is no kinetic energy being wasted, go take a physics course.

[@volvo09]

Tony MacDonald there are much more meaningful ways of capturing energy than trying to absorb fractions of a watt from footsteps. this is as ridiculous as trying to harness the energy of breathing... if a day comes where we as a society need to think about such small quantities of power being generated then we can deal with it at that time, but for now traditional solar completely destroys all these "alternative" power generation methods. for global impact I'm sure a single electric car replacing a gas car will do much more to offset energy use than this could ever do.

[@Wildeheart79]

+Jeremiah John I've taken physics thank you, my point is that even if the physics worked (which it doesn't) you still need to consider ROI or it's not a viable business idea. You can generate electricity from lemons, the physics is totally correct with that one, does that mean you'd want to invest in a company who planned to replace power stations with lemons? Of course you wouldn't.

[@mikedarby9572]

This really infuriates me. Surely someone from Fully Charged has done GCSE physics? 2 People *jumping* on two tiles around 15 times generated 25 Joules of energy. That's around 3 Joules a second. If the two of them carried on jumping on those tiles non stop for the next 20 years that would generate the equivalent of about £50 at today's prices. Human energy harvesting is utterly trivial in our energy mix. The embedded carbon in the manufacture and installation far outweighs any benefit.

[@LasseHuhtala]

"It's good to be open minded, but not so open minded your brain falls out."

[@eTwisted]

I have to agree with the other posters - people will be powering this - doing more work. BUT - can't you imagine grit collecting under these movable plates and, in short order stopping them from moving? I don't think they'd last 1 winter in places where they spread salt or grit on the sidewalks in the winter.

[@Ludix147]

eTwisted Well obviously they are sealed... And there are ways to do that reliably :)

[@eTwisted]

Please note - I said grit "under these movable plates". I'm sure the spinning generators are sealed - but I highly doubt that those would last more than a winter in a place where salt and sand are spread all over the sidewalk. Any exposed metal is going to corrode and quickly as my bicycles and cars over the decades have amply proven.

[@Strangething90]

you don't have to walk on the plates, look at the football field with the astroturf covering it, or in an airport where it would be covered with carpet or other floor covering. all you will feel is that it's got a softer feel when you walk on it as opposed to a hard thump

[@edwardjamescarr]

This is total bollocks. There are 3,600,000 joules in 1 kWh of electricity which would cost about 10 pence. If all the energy from a 70kg person moving 2cm downward due to gravity was collected that would be about 14 J. (E = mgh) That means over 250,000 people would have to step on one of these tiles to generate 10 pence of electricity. At the rate of one person per second, which would literally be a queue of people running, that would take 3 days. That means in 1 year one of these tiles would only generate £10 of electricity assuming you can get 1 person a second, forever, to walk over it.

[@PeterStilwell]

I generally think we've already got the tech we need to cut fossil fuel use down to below harmful levels, excepting perhaps storage, which needs a bit of improvement regards cost and speed of charge, but I'm prepared to tolerate a bit of out-the-box thinking because, hey, who knows? But this crosses the line into the ridiculous. It's a scam, it's harmful to endorse it, and it's sad to see genuine, lovely, and enthusiastic people taken-in by it. This show needs a science advisor. Get David MacKay to recommend someone.

[@davepermen]

Good thing a floor is not just one tile, then. And it'sstill moreenrgery put to use than on a normal ground, where it all gers just converted andwasted into heat.

[@PeterStilwell]

But...? £10 per tile per year. How much do you think one of those things costs? I'd go with an absolute minimum £50 unit and minimum £50 installation. 10 years for payback if there are no upkeep costs. If a whole floor cost you £1000, both your wallet and the environment would be better off had you spent it on solar. It's £*@)ing retarded.

[@mach0elf]

This tech has nothing to do with cutting fossil fuel use. Because of our industrial agriculture and food miles, for a human to generate one joule of energy we use a hundred times as many joules of fossil fuels; if walking on them takes energy out of each footstep compared to a hard floor, then it will increase fossil fuel use.

[@DrWhom]

Well, the foot of the person stepping down would be falling from a slightly greater height, so it would be a little bit more energy. The person would also have to work a little bit harder to get back up to that height, which is the walking-through-sand analogy others have offered here. I do agree it is very difficult to see how this could be anything other than a scam. You know these Tokyo scenes with hordes of pedestrians crossing intersections at rush hours? I can just conceive the thing working there, but even so, installment will probably take ridiculously long to break even, and not to mention the "green-ness" of penalizing those who would travel on foot...

[@funny-video-YouTube-channel]

This could partially power the escalators in the metro stations. The escalators waste electricity, when they run empty. The transport operators can get some electricity back and make the urban transport cheaper hopefully.

[@808GT]

He really can talk smoothly though. probably great at getting VC.

[@edcooper2396]

I wish most of the population actually understood something about energy. I'm sure Pavegen has burnt up more energy heating their office than these tiles have (and will) ever produce.

[@shelory]

its like a tax on pedestrians, it makes it harder to walk to where ever you want to get to so you can make energy for a street light!

[@jur4x]

And that makes you eat more, and spend more on food

[@xxwookey]

Or get slightly less fat :-)

[@Strangething90]

or spend less long at the gym, or wonder why you've lost a bit a weight

[@DrWhom]

Speaking of the gym, ever noticed how they just let all that human kinetic energy dissipate there?

[@vornamenachname8001]

@@DrWhom because its so little energy

[@idjles]

I'm disappointed. You let this snake charmer ramble on and on, and didn't ask the basic questions, "how long does it need to run to get its energy investment back?", "what is average wattage per m2?" "How do you stop people avoiding them?"

[@DavidKnowles0]

put them in places where people can't avoid them. Like the bridge over the central line at Stratford or heathrow 3 terminal.

[@xxwookey]

Would be nice to know W/m2 and typical capacity factors for their installations. From reading around a bit it seem like it's something like 2-10W/m2 (which is actually the same range as a windfarm) and maybe 3-8% c.f.

[@jonathanrabbitt]

~0.3W exerted per person @ 4.6km/h walking speed. You have to convince people to exert further with this product. Now just calculate the people/area density. Very expensive electricity, it seems.

[@peaceofcolours3285]

Idjles Erle you would stop them by having it in as many places that are flat, then it cannot be avoided as much if people are in a rush

[@ZarlanTheGreen]

_"how long does it need to run to get its energy investment back?"_ Dude, you have to have a floor, anyway.

[@volvo09]

I feel bad for the patreon donors this month...

[@jameswilkins8530]

Perfect for the dance video games that the kids are so crazy about!

[@Road-hog123]

So, I did some maths. The Washington DC installation was 240 ft². It cost $200,000 to install. That's ~$9000/m². If you wanted to install 240 ft² of granite paving instead, it would set you back ~$3000, labour included. So this is not 5% more expensive, it's about 6500% more expensive. Looking at power generation, Pavegen claims 5W per person while they're walking on it. Now consider that in support of these areas they're running servers to analyse data and run the apps. I can well imagine that being far in excess of how much energy is being offset by these...

[@WillB85]

I don't believe the 5% more than standard paving. This will be an expensive way of making walking deeply unpleasant while generating irrelevant dribbles of energy.

[@alikhoobiary6595]

sun to grass to cow to milk to human to pavement to bulb. I have a better idea! Sun to bulb.

[@ColinRichardson]

too bad you couldn't use the energy from the millennium bridge shock absorbers. Since they had that problem with people walking in unison was shacking it the bridge.

[@maxgreece1]

Colin Richardson Funnily enough my mind went straight to shock absorbers too, but in a car. I'm guessing that having only 4 per vehicle would limit the output a bit.

[@PeterStilwell]

you've got to balance the energy gained against the costs, though; weight, complexity, unit cost initially and in upkeep, compromise in design...is it really generating enough to make it worthwhile? Are you better off just adding the same weight in batteries? Usually the answer to the first is "no" and the second is "yes". I think we've already got the tech we need, and if anything we just need to improve that, mostly regards better battery technology.

[@JayLikesLasers]

Fired from his job when he tried to implement a mature technology and failed (solar or wind powered light). Went back to school. Made walking harder so that he could the increased workload of pedestrians instead for a minimal amount of energy. Now all the tiles need wireless connectivity and bluetooth. Genius. /s

[@xXShOOtYXx8]

It feels like so much materials like copper will be wasted for a small amount of energy, meaning it might be more efficient to use other forms of energy instead. Maybe it will be good for football pitches and but its a dodgy one I think.

[@peterfaber9316]

This seems to be one of those things that get invented again and again and again. I think this is like the fourth or the fifth time in the last 10 or 15 years that I've seen this kind of project.

[@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR]

FYI there's also military tech now available that's installed in the soldiers backpack and uses the soldiers walk/stride to charge batteries. Its operated by a magnet which moves up and down a vertical shaft within an electric coil system so movement generates electricity. It even works when being transported by truck or armoured vehicle over undulating ground.

[@rokadamlje5365]

Basically its gonna make walking more tiring... Which is exactly the opposite of the function that pavement provides.

[@C0deH0wler]

Except you will be walking on like 30m of tiles. Not 5km!! It takes no sweat to walk on 30m of grass, man.

[@joshuacornell6667]

Try walking through mud, that is more tiring and harder than walking on this or grass or even sand.

[@ajmilward87]

Exploring all ideas in some way is what this show is about. Development and pushing a product is the way forward for any initiative that has not yet been explored. Years ago the same as the comments below was said about EVs and Battery technologies, not until it was pushed was it able to develop. Like Elon says Economy of scales. It not only works for cost but also developing an idea past the point of removing criticism about it. Even if it is only a novelty would it not get thousands of people thinking about where their energy comes from, many people whom otherwise would normally not seek that knowledge like those that follow Fully Charged. Re engineer it to a bigger scale and put it in all of the intersections in major cities we see masses of people crossing every which way and are it to take energy from the vehicles at the intersection at the same time. Make each of the tiles out of Solar panels so we have Kinetic Solar Friends Road ways. Keep up the great work Robert and team, if you don't embrace these ideas just for a second you become just on par with the likes of the outdated view taken from coal industries that should open their eyes and invest their dirty gains money into keeping them a float and pushing green energy.

[@paulhendrix8599]

How did both this company and this episode get made without anyone saying *"wait, this is really stupid"* ?

[@olivermarler3246]

Good on him for being so candid about having a child's finger on his keyring. His frankness is refreshing. ;)

[@PezCuckow]

It's a nice idea, but we've got to see it in practice somewhere with high traffic. Does it actually hold up to abuse, how much power is actually produced, does it last as long as concrete or paving stones?

[@madjamjar]

well he did say they have it in heathrow terminal 3 and gets 10k or so people on it so i guess they are collecting that data. I must imagine that having it on a football pitch will give them more info on taking abuse.

[@DavidKnowles0]

It in Washington at the minute

[@RussellSpencerOfficial]

I've got a better idea, just switch off escalators.

[@Broken-Silencer]

Nailed it.

[@rafthejaf8789]

I'm in Munich right now and all the escalators turn off when not being used and start moving when you approach them.

[@Otuhh]

somebody message thunderfoot. tell too take a look at this

[@KokoMbella]

or EEVblog

[@philipniznik8475]

I don't think that the product is worth the time to debunk as its pretty self-explanatory complete uneconomic tosh. I do however like the idea in concept only and its a nice gimmick in a few installations. Maybe this could be laid at the side of the solar roadway eh ? :)

[@denchua]

It's not that this technology is impossible. It's that it's impractical.

[@GeoStreber]

i just sent thunderf00t a twitter message regarding this.

[@GeoStreber]

i just sent thunderf00t a twitter message regarding this.

[@rmackay9]

A very interesting show. Some energy ideas work, some don't but regardless of how this turns out I learned something and it was interesting. keep it up!

[@ekner]

I call bunk.

[@msyin9]

I think his idea is very interesting and until it is put in a place, like Victoria Station ( for example) it would be very interesting to see what they can accomplish. The real excitement for me is that someone is thinking outside the box and has tested, tried, failed and tired again. I hope someone takes him up on it, considering it will cost 5% more than what a basic floor will cost anyway. Looks like they have done a massive amount of R&D and still sifting through data, so let's not jump up too quickly to say it won't work since this video shows where it is working.

[@jur4x]

Japanese already tried to harvest energy of people walking on something. Failed. I don't remember the name of that project, since it was nearly 10 years ago. But in the end they barely got enough energy to power few lightbulbs.

[@karllospinto]

You are all over the place :P Really nice to see people commenting in various "renewable electricity" related channels! (saw you in Tesla Time News ofc)

[@idjles]

msyin9 people would avoid these footpaths, and avoid stores that use them as it is tiring to walk over.

[@Hagledesperado]

This is not thinking outside the box. Hundreds if not thousands of pre-teens have come up with the exact same idea before. The difference is that most of the kids didn't have a marketing budget, so in most cases the idea probably got more or less the attention it deserved: A pat on the head and $5 to buy yet another popular science magazine.

[@msyin9]

I love that show and shows like this and others that really give you a variety and have a passion as well as informing us what is out there.I support at least two on Patreon and will have to add Tesla Time this year.

[@edenviews]

You could use them for speed bumps, perhaps?

[@robertgreen1318]

Hi Robert just a thought but how do they clean the tiles, dirt will drop down the cracks/joins and build up under. Would take a lot cleaning.

[@Nightlurk]

I think this guy is setting himself up for a second failure. The amount of resources, money and energy put into building and installing these things cannot be justified by the minimal energy they generate, there are far more efficient ways of generating free and clean energy which do justify their cost. I think he needs to pivot his company towards making those things more of a gadget than an utility which it will never be... He already seams to be doing that since he somehow is pursuing a fkt up monetization plan in social networking!? The fact that he mentioned that crap with the steps data is proof he doesn't really have a working business model and he's desperately looking for ways of making this financially feasible.

[@davithkane1369]

"That's slavery with extra steps" lol!

[@skyearthocean5815]

"You can't hug a wind turbine." "Well, I have but I'm a bit weird." Man after my own heart!

[@bluefoxtv1566]

Look its the next solar roadway. The cost and output is simply to low to make it viable.

[@jur4x]

Solar roadway, at least might work. I didn't say it would, but might to. This one - not. Walking would take extra effort, and people would start avoiding it.

[@bluefoxtv1566]

If you removed the problems with the distribution network the problems with driving on glass and made cars clear it may work.

[@jur4x]

Exactly. Loads of problems to solve with that. But this project would have to overcame people not willing to walk on something that moves and makes you feel tired quicker.

[@aigarius]

I was super sceptical about this, but some parts of it actually make a lot of sense. The mechanical solutions look well done. The key drawback for such installations usually would be that people walking over such tiles will be losing this energy - it will feel like walking uphill all the time, so you either need to put it locations where floor is soft anyway or give some significant benefit back to the people. A football pitch is a decent place to place such devices as a replacement for the rubber that goes under the artificial pitch to make it safer for players, same can be said for other athletic arenas and children playgrounds - use this instead of a layer of rubber to make the ground softer. The other idea was the addition of Internet of Things to these tiles in order to measure people density in location in both real time and over longer periods - in this way you can give back to people knowledge of pedestrian traffic jams and to planners of cities and building about routes that people take across their floors, so that they can optimise placement of kiosks, advertisements and trash cans in the space. In the long run if you imagine a dark street in the middle of nowhere, it might save more power to be able to safely turn off the street lights when there is noone on the street and turn it back on again when someone steps on a tile, than the electricity generated from the tile itself.

[@timsyoutubechannel9798]

For a project that's been running for so long with so many prototype installations, the company seemed to have relatively few hard figures to hand. That old 'conservation of energy' law sure does get in the way of a good idea sometimes. Love the channel but it might be a good idea to run some of these schemes through a technical consultant first. Apart from the design feasibility, the UK can't even keep normal roads and pavements maintained properly or provide sufficient 32A outlets for EVs, so I can't really see your average council getting their head around this idea. Lastly, 5% premium over a standard floor installation cost - now I feel my Koch being well and truly pulled.

[@KaneSanMiguel]

Good lord this man can talk lol

[@KokoMbella]

if your product doesn't speak for itself you have to do the talking

[@unknowndomain]

Thats why it is easy to see how he managed to start a company with a fundamentally flawed product like this by talking around the issue of physics.

[@DavidKnowles0]

Steve Jobs could talk and so can Zuckerberg.

[@KokoMbella]

Jobs talked the talk Wozniak backed it up and Zuckerberg walked the walk!

[@Johnnisjohnnis]

Having cars drive over these things will increase pollution from old cars and decrease range in new cars.

[@MasterDeanarius]

Really got more of a salesman vibe rather than an engineer vibe from that guy. Interesting concept but I felt like he was a bit off throughout the interview. Great video as always though!

[@edcooper2396]

Thats because most of what was coming out of his mouth was clearly bullshit. 5% more cost was the killer!

[@duncypoo]

MasterDeanarius I agree. He had a great ability to avoid directly answering questions. His responses all seemed very scripted and well rehearsed. The question on cost was completely skirted. If these are only 5% more expensive than a standard floor, give us the data. What's the yield? What're the installation and maintenance costs vs. standard paving. He came across as a bit slimey and a real douche. Definitely not passionate about green tech, but passionate about making money and living a CEO lifestyle. Very egotistical.

[@Hagledesperado]

Sadly, the concept it's not even that interesting or original. If it came from a 10 year old geek, the kid should be encouraged. When it comes from a commercial company of grown-ups it's just plain cringeworthy.

[@gracefool]

It's not a great video. I don't even need to watch it to know that it's retarded, because I have a high-school understanding of physics and aren't incredibly gullible.

[@adam77456]

reading comments.. its amazing just how scared people are of new technologies. You go to the nth degree to search for negatives. perhaps thats how we learn?.. by challenging? Henry Ford said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

[@Hagledesperado]

1) This is not a new technology. 2) People aren't scared, they're simply tired of bullshit. 3) No need to go to the nth degree to searh for negatives, they're all right there in Physics 101. 4) The main problem with this product is not that nobody wants it, it's that it is bollocks. Clearly they're going to make someone want it, and that someone will be fleeced.

[@adam77456]

😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 uhmazin how much peeps will cry so much.. dry your eyes, remove anorak, pull stick from out your a**. The fact that you have searched through all comments to look for the positives and then put your two cents worth in suggests you have a very controlling behaviour Hagledesperado. The purpose of the comments section if for unbiased and balanced feedback. NOT for someone with an emotional disorder to try to control every comment.

[@peterbuchan628]

If I was to compile a list of all possible ways of generating renewable energy, I would put cat flaps ahead of this

[@PsyTechnical]

Well done! Amazing! Solar roadways will need to integrate triangles.

[@Diode5]

I decided to check out the Pavegen installation in Melbourne's Federation Square today. I'm not sure if the tile is only meant to light up at night or if it wasn't working. Some the Pavegen tiles gave more of a click than others. It would be interesting to know the longevity of the tile. Unfortunately I can't tell if any of them were functional or simply they have smarts to not light up during the day.

[@mirkostanic92]

THIS IS AMAZING!

[@SublimeSimplicity]

So this is designed to generate energy near massive populations... the places most well connected to electrical grids... sounds really valuable.

[@amycupcake6832]

I saw this in a shop recently, good to know what it's for

[@padepade8]

Robert: How many steps would it take to charge a 60 kWh car battery?

[@jonathanrabbitt]

Assuming 0.3W per (64kg) person @ 4.6km/h (equal to; that is, doubling the energy expended). That's 200,000 person-hours of walking to charge that battery, assuming no other losses.

[@fcoinfanteify]

did he said at some point of the video what is the expected energy yield for every square feet of its product? I just see people talking but he did not give hard numbers on what it achieves in watts / hour vs people passing.

[@GSino]

Wow! Great idea! Great clever young man! Good job with the video!

[@Knightyme]

I came out of watching this like I have just sat through a long infomercial.

[@bige8549]

Love innovative ideas like this. Thanks, fullycharged. I hope they can make it work. Put them in playgrounds!

[@riteshgupta9593]

i need this tiles for my project how can i get those tiles . Is it available on a website.

[@tec4303]

Sorry, am I wrong or is the energy taken from the person or vehicle that is on that thing? If you step on it, it moves down and you have to move further up, right?

[@rogerbarton497]

Robert - You've really been suckered in with this one, I hope Pavegen didn't try to sell you shares in this. If you have bought shares I've got a better proposition. It's called Tram Tread, basically it's a set of tread mills installed at tramstops, the quicker the people queuing for the tram work the treadmill the sooner the tram arrives. On a serious note, people with balance problems would have a really hard time with this.

[@grahameparkhouse8085]

i walk over the tiles at heathrow airport t3 each day . just next to the Burberry store

[@1riwa]

gray park, so how would You rate the experience?

[@grahameparkhouse8085]

its feels ok to walk over . there is a tiny dip as you go over it but it does need to do that to make juice . on the wall are led strips in different colours and they are fairly bright . its been there for a long time and is not showing any signs of wearing out .

[@dethkon2284]

Burberry i got a cap once from them. FUNNY STORY

[@precisiont5188]

I am grateful for innovators like him.

[@billyradiani7584]

Im so interested with this new technology bcoz im planning to build a 20 courts of badminton can i used this as my flooring ang howmuch power that i can produce in 1 court?

[@MartynHutchby]

my first thought was with that gap between each unit and the cavity underneath each unit, what about fluids, dust, dirt and even rodents in the cavity. Dust and dirt caught in cavities beneath the escalators was the fuel in the kings cross tube station fire. with water, if there is standing water under the tiles, could this short out the units?

[@K1989L]

Does the flywheel spin also when the floor returns up?

[@CorwynGC]

No point. Either get all the energy going down, or split it between up and down (with a bigger spring), it is the same amount.

[@thoperSought]

while I'm really skeptical of this, I feel like the people who are saying it's impossible haven't thought about the kinds of surfaces that we walk on in urban environments. concrete is hard on our knees, hard on our backs, and is just plain unpleasant to walk on. we make shoes to do part of the work for us, but our bodies still have to absorb a lot of shock from every step-not as much as stairs, surely, but still. with 10mm (11:51) of travel, this sounds like it might be too much, and I'm skeptical about the power output, but if you think we can rule it out solely on physical principles, I think you don't know much about the human body. yes, this is essentially a machine for indirectly, and inefficiently converting food into electricity. but *_if_*_ it's pleasant to walk on,_ and *_truly_*_ isn't very expensive,_ that's not such a bad trade off. some percentage of that energy would otherwise be wasted. as for the rest of the energy, we have a whole industry of specialized places people pay money to go to use expensive machines to waste energy from food.

[@willdatsun]

anything that is step in the right direction is a great thing but it would be nice to have some real stats. Could you put these under a skyscraper so that the wind bending it would make some power?

[@JammNickk]

Good to revisit these and watch where the channel really kicked off.

[@carbonz3739]

Why can't the tiles them self be solar? So if there outside you get power from walking and from the sun.

[@houndofzoltan]

Seems a lot of people have previously read an article which said this would never work and their confirmation bias is kicking in: I've read it can't work, therefore it can't work. If you haven't been involved and seen the calculations and walked on the tiles you should just wait and see how it pans out: it will cost you nothing.

[@kudawaltermusonza5264]

This is Amazing I have always believed in sustainable Energy Convention Systems and Pavegen is a game changer!

[@markhingston3024]

Can this technology be adapted to wave power?

[@infrajo3]

Or you could save yourself a shed load of money and just put cheap solar panels on the roof of Victoria station.

[@Strangething90]

or do both

[@Hagledesperado]

That wouldn't save them the money, though.

[@carpenterfamily6198]

Robert, while I love your EV coverage, it is very smart to cover related energy topics.

[@extremeNothingness]

I still can't believe I'm watching Kryten from Red Dwarf talking about ev's, lololol

[@WisamAlRawi]

Dubai will be more than happy to have you guys there. They always like to be the first with these things.

[@tommyjohn3525]

Awesome! I predict that dude will become very rich.

[@k9wiREless]

so how much do each of these units cost?

[@nutzeeer]

This could make sense on a running path, where it softens the ground, relieving stress from ankles.

[@sirierieott5882]

We need all the new ideas, engineered and built to destruction to end our deadly dependency on fossil fuels. I applaud this brave and innovative approach and in rural remote or shaded urban situations - why not, if it's competitive on durability, affordability and suitability - go for it...

[@funkydunky1430]

In rural areas where there are 3.14 persons per hour it would be just an expensive and inefficient (for the sake of training} treadmill. Even in urban areas you would need to install them in areas with constant people flow. But that would not be enough even to light up the area they are covering.

[@YohannParis]

To all the negative people about the fact that it's like walking on sand, needs more energy than walking normaly, etc... I walk on those things everyday near my office and they make almost no difference. Almost no-one notice they are walking on something that moves, most people think it's just a decorative tile.

[@funkydunky1430]

Yohann Paris, do some math on how much energy this piece of crap produces.

[@YohannParis]

1kw/day, which is literally nothing, just enough for some decorative LED. So what is your point?

[@grahammcdonald]

I like it. If this paving had (even small) lights that up on push for fun then I reckon most people would be all over it for fun. Gyms are surely the first place for this to go.

[@paladro]

kids bouncy castle + pavegen = unlimited energy :P

[@Mil-Keeway]

"I'm an industrial designer" 'nuff said, end of interview.

[@Warrantti]

Does the physics of this make sense? How much electricity you would get this in a year with decent assumptions?

[@jur4x]

if it actually moves so far - it doesn't make any sense

[@unknowndomain]

No, it's not energy generation, but energy harvesting, and it's harvesting it from people, and thus their food, and their own pockets, in admittedly small quantities but still.

[@jur4x]

It's basically like walking on dry sandy beach (or, beach covered with pebbles). And walking on surface that moves as you step on it - is really exhausting.

[@unknowndomain]

You've tried it? I'd like to try, I think the guy who invented it was from Brixton near me.

[@TheWebstaff]

12:32 so yes then it's just like the old toys.. xD I would be interested to cycle over this.. see how much extra effort it requires..

[@Paxmax]

Dave Webster It's going to be a bumpy ride!!!

[@philrabe910]

Medium cost flooring spews off a machine at great number of square meters per hour. That is how they can make it at a medium cost. It similarly installs quickly using big rolls, or large tile-like products.

[@sebastienridore3403]

You deserve way more views

[@adrianc8140]

this guy must be named Rick, He's making gooble boxes.

[@videogalore]

I think the solar roadways comparisons are a little unfair given that they have only just unveiled their first actual public test site, whereas it sounds like there are some big installs that have taken place with this product around the world.

[@clothearednincompoop]

And also too much to ask that Robert and the team carefully examines the viability of all the products and ideas from every possible point of view including technical and commercial. Maybe it's a bad idea, but at least it's relevant to this channel. I'll stay subscribed... ;)

[@InfoSopher]

Let's put some physical sense into this: I'm really missing the numbers on this thing. At this point however, I doubt that the way it was presented in the video by the company makes a lot of physical sense. So while I agree with what many other commenters have written, I still believe that there may be some applications for this kind of idea. Whenever you want to get energy out of the system, you may have an opportunity to collect that energy. (Basically, it's all about transforming potential energy - which is the very thing that water power plants in rivers or lakes already do.) Electric cars are already doing this in the form of regenerative breaking. So here are some thoughts on scenarios where this idea could be interesting: Whenever something moves downward, the potential energy of that something needs to go somewhere. Which would be a possible scenario for energy regeneration. For example, think of a road down a steep hill. Or think of downward stairs. Also, when something is to fast you could use this kind of idea. Think of a freeway exit ramp. Or one of those special roads along the highway, that are meant to help trucks come to a halt. This principle would also be useful on a runway. However, only for arriving, not so much for departing airplanes. But if you would have these kind of plates in an active version - that is a version that could not only be pushed and thereby absorb energy, but also extend itself - then pherhaps you could even accelerate departing planes with it? Who knows, maybe it's even possible to use this kind of tech underwater in order to calm the coastal part of an ocean, or to even lessen the energy of a tsunami. But I haven't thought this through yet. You're welcome to do so. :-) Then, there may be places where using this kind of tech has other wanted effects. For example, it could add walking comfort to concrete roads. Or it may require more energy from athletes, such as the footballers in the video, thereby increasing their training. Or it may just serve as an additional marker in public places, e.g. marking areas around traffic lights and thereby warning distracted pedestrians of dangerous areas through a means of force feedback / tactile feedback.

[@dilvenderkaur]

I would like to have it installed in my own home right here in Singapore.

[@rishi3186]

How rain affects it's efficiency ?

[@xanderholyfield9771]

Anyone know how long the tile will generate 5w for after one step?

[@americanhindi]

This tech could be used in automobile shock absorbers. Here in NYC/NJ area, we are fortunate to have plenty of potholes and uneven surfaces to drive on everyday.