How the Free Energy Revolution is Swinging a More Active World Our Way
Tech is making us like to move it, move it
Creating free energy is fun — and right now, this concept is revolutionising the way we think about energy and power.
It’s not new that the world is working to harvest ‘free’ energy from humans. The idea has been entertained for decades, when engineers and scientists began experimenting with how to turn the kinetic energy from our everyday movements into electricity. We’re all familiar with motion-powered watches where the wearer generates enough energy that the device powers itself, and on a larger scale, companies such as Pavegen are harnessing energy from human footsteps. In the future, we can expect to see devices like Fitbits charge themselves.
If movement can generate energy, then when we break it down into bite-sized chunks, human activity is a goldmine.
This is at the core of the ‘Infinity Swing’ built by CSIRO — Australia’s federal government agency for science and technology — which converts people’s playful momentum into sustainable energy that powers the art installation it’s a part of.
‘Like all great ideas, it started with a question. What if we could make sure energy was affordable and available forever while protecting our planet? Our scientists are working hard to make this happen, but it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun along the way.’ — CSIRO on its Infinity Swing
Swings are most commonly found in children’s playgrounds. The concept of play is so often associated with childhood that fun activities can be perceived as contradictory to how adults are supposed to behave. But I like fun, and I can’t claim that the last time I swung on a park swing is buried away in my childhood memories. It turns out that most of the people reading this article do, too. It’s refreshing to see so many adults get excited to play on public play equipment, with more than 3,000 people having attended each of the recent Sydney and Melbourne demo events for the Infinity Swing.
The excitement and buzz that surrounded this project gives us a valuable insight into the energy revolution: pursuits like these are not only making the most of free energy, but also encouraging us to create this energy by getting more active.
Once upon a time, a well-known stereotype was the image of the lazy teen giving two-word answers as to why they had to keep playing World of Warcraft or watching sci-fi movies instead of kicking a ball around outside. Engaging with technology used to mean you were effectively chair-bound, either at the computer desk or on the four-legged cloud of cushioned fabric that we have come to affectionately know as ‘the couch’.
But when active pursuits like running, walking and cycling can power devices in our daily lives, it’s only fitting that we integrate real-life activity with technology.
What if powering the television meant you would simply run a few kilometres on the treadmill? There are some brilliant geeks out there who have entertained this idea as a novelty over the last decade, and there’s even an Instructable on how to turn an ordinary bike into an energy-generating powerhouse that cuts off your television signal if you stop riding.
What if you were sitting at your work desk and you noticed your phone was giving you angry red ‘low battery’ flashes (which BuzzFeed recognises as one of the big struggles of our time) — but instead of reaching into your abyss of tangled cords, you could just get up from your desk and go for a walk in the fresh air?
And what if it were just a part of life that your bike wheels turning round and round generate the electricity to charge anything you own? There’s a great deal of promise here in Siva Cycle’s portable charger, which lets you ‘live untethered with clean energy from your own two legs’. Hook it up to your bike and you’ve got sustainable energy anywhere.
With the path we’re on, we’re getting active for reasons beyond sharing gym selfies on Instagram or logging an epic bike ride on Strava. Even if our activity generated electricity, projects like the Infinity Swing shows that we’re not even doing it just to power a device. We’re wanting to get more active, and it’s helping bring about free energy.
The fun in creating energy is here to stay—and that’s good news for everyone who believes that a more active world can make us happier, healthier and greener. Or, at least, for anyone else who likes playing on swing sets.
Like this kind of stuff? Follow Future Crunch here on Medium.
Or if you wanna keep it old school, check us out on Twitter | Facebook
