Eco Factor: Supermarket checkout to be powered by the energy created by shoppers’ cars.
If you’re a regular consumer of goods purchased from Sainsbury’s in Gloucester you would soon be helping the supermarket power itself with clean and renewable energy. The supermarket is installing new systems that will allow the cars to generate electricity for it. The system will be based on the use of kinetic road plates, which will harness kinetic energy on the entrance of the car park.
The energy will be used to reduce the market’s load on the national grid. When the system is set in motion by the wheels of the car, round plates on the surface of the road bring underground energy converters into motion that generate electricity. With hundreds of cars being parked daily, the supermarket aims to generate about 30KW of energy an hour.
The inventors of the system believe that the system can be installed on car parks and roads all over the country to generate green and renewable electricity, which can also be used to illuminate highways and nearby stores.
Via: Telegraph
