The Great Outdoor Gym Company
New technology from The Great Outdoor Gym Company (TGOGC) could give people a little more incentive to exercise and perhaps provide a way for them to “work off” their electricity bill as well. The British company, which creates and installs outdoor fitness parks, recently introduced Green Energy Gym Technology that harvests energy from cardio machines and converts it to electricity.
Green Heart at Shaw Park in Hull is TGO’s first of what it hopes will be many Green Energy Gyms installed across the United Kingdom. At this location, electricity produced from exercise lights up the facility when it gets dark out, allowing the park to remain open for longer. According to the TGO press release, the technology has many other potential uses and “can be fed into local buildings or even into the National Grid.” In addition to bikes and cross trainers, the Green Energy Gym Technology contains a People Power Display wall People Power Display Wall that measures the power and energy generated by the outdoor gym equipment, allowing users to see the collective effect of their efforts.
This is not the first time human energy has been suggested as a possible power source. Designers have envisioned playgrounds that capture children’s seemingly endless energy and the University of Oregon has equipped some of their gym’s ellipticals with electricity-harvesting technology. If human activity is a remotely scalable energy alternative, it could create a promising outlook from both a power and a public health standpoint.
[via Earth Techling]
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