A British supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, opened a new store yesterday where the checkouts will be people-powered. The store features a new kinetic energy generator that will draw power from moving vehicles in the Gloucester supermarket’s parking lot.
Whenever a vehicle passes over the ‘Kinetic Road Plates’ in the car park, energy is captured and channeled back into the store saving power that would normally be taken from the National Grid.
The road plates are expected to produce 30 kW of green energy an hour, more than enough to power the store’s checkouts. The system, pioneered for Sainsbury’s by Peter Hughes of Highway Energy Systems, does not affect the car or fuel efficiency; and drivers feel no disturbance as they drive over the plates.