With only one person on it, maybe. Put this thing out in a public area walkway or school, however, and it could power quite a lot more than you would expect.
An average adult human can generate about 200 Watts of power continuously, while working out. So, gently walking by over a flat surface, it can't be more than 5 watts really.
http://sustainability.blogs.brynmawr.edu/2012/07/31/understanding-energy-part-1/
'Think about a person who consumes 2000 calories in a day. Every calorie from food (kCal) is equal to 4200 joules of energy. Used over the course of a day (86,400 seconds), this person uses an average of 97.2 joules a second, meaning they have an average power of 97.2 watts.'
97.2 watts a second; and when walking, that number goes up significantly. Also, it wouldn't really matter how gently you go, you would push down with similar weight on each foot unless you are stomping, considering that is where all of your body weight falls.
You don't give off that power, because then you wouldn't move. Those 97.2 watts is to keep your body alive, nothing more, if your energy consumption went up by say, 50 watts, and it would all go into the floor, it would stop you dead in your tracks. If you want 200 watts generated by a human being, he would be very hard at work, like stomping away at the ground furiously.
I'm with anthracite on this one. It looks great on paper and maybe could power some streetlights when you put it on a really really dense square or something but I doubt it would outweigh the production and maintenance costs. That's the thing, it sounds great to just put something somewhere but unfortunately this isn't the Sims (though I sometimes wish I could change clothes by jumping and spinning around and paint my room in two seconds), this takes time, energy and materials to make and then maintain when it breaks. You'd have to everything-proof if too, otherwise a drunk idiot spilling an entire beer on it or a rainy night could mess it up, as well as for example a car running over it by accident. It'd have to be immensely durable if you want it not to be closed for repairs every two months. I'm all for eco-friendly solutions but I'm not sure this is it. Just the production of the material alone could be energetically less efficient than what it makes in its entire life cycle.
You hit the nail on the head. This thing is very expensive to build and maintain, and will simply never, ever make up for that cost by the energy it generates. Heck, even cheap, mass-produced Chinese solar panels with very low maintenance cost take years to be cost effective.
If you have a monthly (emphasis on monthly) bill of at least $729,000, and according to the article, installation of these around the DC circle would cost $200,000, an argument could be made that over the lifetime of the plates, it would end up saving a good deal of money. I’m not saying that it’s completely factual. It would depend on the number of lights each one could be hooked up to and how many sets would need installed, etc. and it would require more math than I can do on my phone right now. I’m merely saying that an argument could be made that it would save money in the long term. That’s all.
It would be costly but a $729,000 monthly budget means yearly you spend $8,748,000. So for five years, that’s $43,000,000. So if the plates last 5 years then there is an argument to be made. Also, an argument to be made because it would be coming from green sources as well.
'Think about a person who consumes 2000 calories in a day. Every calorie from food (kCal) is equal to 4200 joules of energy. Used over the course of a day (86,400 seconds), this person uses an average of 97.2 joules a second, meaning they have an average power of 97.2 watts.'
97.2 watts a second; and when walking, that number goes up significantly. Also, it wouldn't really matter how gently you go, you would push down with similar weight on each foot unless you are stomping, considering that is where all of your body weight falls.
Estimated to cost $200,000 for installation.
Using $.08 for cost per kilowatt hour, with 75000 lights in DC, you’re looking at a cost of over $729,000 a month on electricity.
So a one time cost of $200,000 thrice would still be cheaper than the monthly operating cost of a street lighting system of purely purchase electricity.