Construction innovations Today

New materials and energy, design approaches, as well as advances in digital technology and big data, are creating a wave of innovation within the construction industry. Here are the most exciting developments.

KINETIC FOOTFALL

The Sustainable Energy Floor is the world’s most efficient energy converting pedestrian floor system which can be used in pavements and high footfall areas like airports, sports arenas, shopping malls and railway stations

Kinetic energy is another technology under development. Pavegen provides a technology that enables the flooring to harness the energy of footsteps. It can be used indoors or outdoors in high traffic areas and generates electricity from pedestrian footfall using an electromagnetic induction process and flywheel energy storage. The technology is best suited to transport hubs where a large flow of people will pass over it. The largest deployment the company has done so far is in a football pitch in Rio de Janeiro to help power the floodlights around the pitch. It also currently has a temporary installation outside London’s Canary Wharf station powering street lights.

How does it work?

The floor modules flex slightly when stepped on. Inside each tile is an electromechanical system, which transforms the small vertical movement produced by pedestrians into a rotating movement that drives a generator. Each module by the size of 115 mm can produce up to 30 watts of continuous output. Typical power output for continuous stepping by a person lies between 1 and 10W nominal output per module.

KINETIC ROADS

The electro-kinetic road ramp is a method of generating electricity by harnessing the kinetic energy of automobiles that drive over the ramp. In June 2009, one of the devices was installed in the car park at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Gloucester, United Kingdom, where it provides enough electricity to run all of the store’s cash registers. The ramp was invented by Peter Hughes, an electrical and mechanical engineer who is employed by Highway Energy Systems Ltd. The company says that under normal traffic conditions, the apparatus will produce 30 kW of electricity. Other proposed applications for the road ramps include powering street and traffic lights, heating roads in the winter to prevent ice from forming, and ventilating tunnels to reduce pollution.

The cutting-edge technology is able to collect, convert this energy into electricity and pass it on to the electricity grid. In addition to improving road safety, device upgrades and promotes the sustainability of road traffic.