 (Source: Sainsbury)
 A major supermarket in Britain is now powered by customer's kinetic energy, with energy harvesting road plates made by AEST, a Californian firm. (Source: DailyMail)
 The Sainsbury supermarket also showcases many other green technologies, which are helping to save it money. (Source: Sainsbury)
Shopping market jumps on the kinetic energy craze
Kinetic energy harvesting is one of the newest and hottest fields in alternative energy. With the world's inhabitants constantly in motion -- particularly people and cars -- there's ample opportunity to find ways to turn some of this energy into power.
California-based AEST has developed a road plate technology that create electricity when pressure is applied to it, such as a car driving over it. A system of 20 of its plates can generate 10,000 to 12,000 kWh per day and costs approximately $2.5M USD to deploy. With power in the U.S. at over $0.10/kWh, that's a a savings of over $1,000 a day and over $300,000 per year. At that rate the system will repay itself in just over 6 years.
England's third largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury is making a push to go green. Among its many efforts is to trial a larger deployment of the AEST plates at one of its stores, in Northampton, England. The plates will generate 30kw of green energy an hour, enough to power the store's lighting and computers.
The plates work as a hydraulic system. When pressure is applied, fluid moves through pumps, which in turn drives a generator.
Sainsbury's environment manager Alison Austin cheers, "This is revolutionary. Not only are we the first to use such cutting-edge technology with our shoppers, but customers can now play a very active role in helping make their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost."
The store also showcases many other green technologies, such as rainwater tanks, solar hot water systems, more daylight and an efficient building management system (BMS). The store recycled or reused 90 percent of its construction waste, as well. The store has also contracted a biomass plant in Scotland to help it dispose of its waste.
While cost remains an issue, Sainsbury's store showcases how over the course of several years, going green can save money. It also provides a perfect launch spot for the AEST, one of the biggest names in the burgeoning field of kinetic energy power generation.
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