Heat from the Street

Engineers are experimenting with innovative systems that capture and recycle energy from the heat generated by human bodies packed into train stations or the solar energy absorbed by the asphalt on roads.

Depending on the level of activity, the human body generates about 60 to 100 Watts of energy in the form of heat, about the same amount of heat given off by the average light bulb. All day, every day, the body is switched on.

About 250,000 human light bulbs hurry through Stockholm Central Station each day, burning brightly as they rush to catch trains, giving off enough heat to raise the temperature of the cavernous building to a constant 22-25 degrees Celsius (71-77 degrees Fahrenheit).

This is too warm, and so the station uses power to cool the air inside. This is doubly wasteful: wasteful of the excess warm air, and wasteful of the power used to cool that air.

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