Startup Gravitational Systems would like to harvest renewable energy from some of your everyday activities, and from everybody else living in urban areas.
The technology being used to do this collects the otherwise wasted energy created from momentum and heat. The kinds of human activities included are footsteps on busy store floors, and vehicle wheels on roads and in parking areas.
This approach to energy generation is taking advantage of the one “trend that seems to be unstoppable”, “that everybody wants to live around everybody else”, Gravitational Systems founder Gare Henderson has said. As more and more people live near each other in ever-growing cities, higher concentrations of energy are available for harnessing in this way.
Henderson points out that all the energy exerted from people is being converted into heat, vibrations, noise, and pollution. He thinks we need to find ways to tap and reuse this energy, in a similar way to how self-winding watches work.
Gravitational Systems is apparently looking for $5 million in seed funding, after already raising $500,000 from early investors.
Top image CC licensed by Craig Cloutier
Bottom mage courtesy of Gravitational Systems
via VentureBeat
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