Power Pads: The Shocking Future of Energy with Piezoelectric Mats
Bailey Lewis
6 Nov 2023
Piezoelectric floor mats are part of a new wave of being eco-friendly that has taken Japan by storm. The piezoelectric mat creates a voltage of energy by applying a charge between the material sheets at the moment of impact, or what some call ‘applied mechanical stress.’ The power is stored inside the capacitors and sent to the displays. The power generated is not substantial, usually only being sufficient enough to supply a few LED boards, for instance.
These mats are currently being used in Japan, where they are installed outside train stations so that as people walk on them the nearby LED board gets lit up. Japan aims to use this as a way to get more of its citizens interested in clean and eco-friendly energy. The project to have it installed in some of Japan’s most popular train stations stems from a partnership between the Shibuya Ward government and Soundpower to bring greater public support for clean energy.
One of the train stations it has been implemented in is the Shibuya station, which has an average of over 2.4 million people crossing Shibuya every day. When the public steps on the mat the holiday displays and LED boards light up as the mat converts energy into electrical energy which is then used to power these boards.
According to a planner from the company that created the mat, a person that weighs about 135 lbs generates 0.1 watts in the one second they usually take to step on the tile.
While this new source of energy is certainly groundbreaking, the reason it is not being widely used is that it is extremely expensive compared to the kind of energy it generates which makes mass application for the mat difficult to achieve. However, that area is rapidly advancing and it might not be too long before using piezoelectric mats becomes more common.
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