In a recent BBC news report on entrepreneur Laurence Kemball-Cook and his company Pavegen, the BBC’s Technology reporter notes that “there seems to be no limit to their aspirations.”

The article discusses the company’s work to date and its dreams for the future. Pavegen Systems produce floor tiles that generate an electrical current when the weight of a person is combined with movement in the tile.

Laurence’s idea has seen public success in one off installations such as at West Ham underground station during the Olympics last year, when the energy produced powered the station’s lights, and at the Paris marathon earlier this year.

He, however, has far bigger aspirations. Pavegen’s aim is to work on an industrial scale; envisioning the the tiles becoming permanent fixtures in buildings city-wide that experience a high volume of people waking through.

Comparing other energy harvesting technologies, the article concludes that everyday things such as walking and jumping “also have a part to play in “greening” the world’s energy supply.”  By lessening the demand for power from the grid, which comes from stations using “highly polluting, global-warming-inducing fossil fuels” Pavegen has the potential to have a significant role in helping cities to become more energy efficient. Read the full BBC report “Energy harvesting: Lighting the office – by walking”

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“Laurence is a firm believer that disruptive technologies are the best way to change attitudes to energy and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and grid power. A charismatic and energetic speaker, Laurence makes a persuasive case for radically different ways of powering the future.”