U.K. supermarket powered by its customers
Being green is all the rage, and if a company can work their customers into the equation without any inconvenience to them, isn’t that even better?
According to The Daily Mail, at a Sainsbury’s store in Gloucester, the parking lot has been fitted with kinetic panels that will generate enough energy each day to keep the cash registers ringing up the sales.
The way the system works is that a car passes over the plates, they are shoved downwards, this in turn causes a hydraulic action that turns the generators. This new feature in the parking lot will generate 30 kilowatts of power an hour, and as the power is generated it is funneled into the store to the cash registers. The technology was tested by the chain previously at a depot, and since it was successful, it is being rolled out to at least this store, and possibly more.
This technology is being looked in to as a solution at other types of businesses also. Imagine a theme park where the visitors pulling in are generating the power that keeps the rollercoasters moving. Apparently the U.K. government is looking at the possibility of putting the plates in the motor ways and that the power from that would be used to keep the street lamps along the sides of the road operating.
The Sainsbury store is acting numerous other green features beyond the parking lot to make the store as green as possible. The rain water will be collected each year that will add up to enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, and it will then be turned in to the water used for the toilets. Floor to ceiling windows have been installed that will work with 140 sun pipes to dim the lights on brighter days to use less energy for the lighting.
While a lot of these actions may seem like a drop in the bucket, and there is sure to be a large upfront investment, in the long run the company saves money, and yet another carbon footprint is reduced.
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June 16th, 2009
I’m astounded that they’ve got the nerve to call it energy efficient. The energy has to come from somewhere, and in this case it will be from customer’s petrol.
So Sainsbury’s is cutting their electricity bills by levying a tax on their customers….
And if it wasn’t for the fact that this article is in the Daily Mail, I’d be extremely concerned about the prospect of these plates on the motorways. As it is, it’s quite probably pure speculation.