Mechanical energy can be converted into electric power, a concept that is known far and wide even to the early students of basic physics. Using this simple concept, The Great Outdoor Gym Company has created a gym which turns the mechanical energy of the equipment being used into electric power.
The idea behind developing such a gym is to encourage communities to indulge in a healthy activity and at the same time, turn that into a clean and green source of energy. Although, the gym creates a fairly modest amount of electric power, such an idea can be implemented at large-scale to generate enough power which can then be fed to the grid.
One of these gyms, fitted in a city park in Hull, has generated 40,000 watt hours so far, says Georgie Delaney, the creative director at The Great Outdoor Gym Company. Delaney further says, “The goal is that a gym like this should serve a community of about 5,000 people and really people could easily make a kilowatt hour per day. So, if you times that by the amount of gyms that we could possibly install, that actually becomes quite a significant amount of energy.”
The company has installed such gyms at a number of locations through funding by the local community. Consequently, these gyms are free for the public and generate their own power. Currently, they generate only sufficient power to juice up their own electric equipment.
There are plans of installing similar gyms in developing countries but the actual installation costs are fairly steep. A gym which can generate enough power to feed back to the grid is installed in nearly $130,000 whereas one which can generate its own power and sufficient electric energy to charge mobiles costs $32,000.
This may not be the best idea of generating sustainable electricity, yet the unique gyms couple a very healthy activity, a community service and a green source of power, all in one.
Courtesy: CNN
[ttjad keyword=”desktop-computer”]
