Award-winning entrepreneur, Pavegen’s Laurence Kemball-Cook, explains the philosophy behind his deceptively simple invention – ‘free’ energy harvested from footsteps.

A Pavegen slab can generate up to 7 Watts of power from a single footstep – enough to power 40 LEDs for one minute.

As Laurence reveals in the video, Pavegen technology brings new meaning to the phrase power walking. Watch it now...

Visitors to the Hub Pavilion in Davos, Switzerland – where the Renault-Nissan Alliance is offering test drives in a fleet of zero-emission electric vehicles – are being encouraged to pace up and down in front of the welcome desk.

The reason? Kinetic energy generated by their footsteps is being converted into renewable energy to power LED lighting in the Hub.

The special walkway is the result of a collaboration between sports shoe maker Nike and Pavegen Systems. Nike Grind is a material created from recycled sports shoes and used to create athletic and playground surfaces… since the early 1990s the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe programme has recycled more than 25 million pairs.

Tiles made from Nike Grind cover the Pavilion floor and have been placed over energy harvesting equipment developed by Pavegen. As visitors walk over the tiles, they flex an imperceptible 5mm generating the renewable energy.

When a number of Pavegen slabs are linked together in a high footfall location, they can provide enough energy to power lighting for more than 12 hours, for example. And music fans at a recent UK pop festival danced on a Pavegen floor to generate electricity to recharge their mobile phones.

Walking – and dancing – is not only good for you, it's also good for the environment.