TSU students give green energy a workout

5:25 pm | Green, TSU | No comment

It may sound like a forced labor camp, but up close the world’s largest human power plant looks like a lot of fun.

Calories to Kilowatts, a green technology project that those students at Texas State University illustrated by mounting elliptical machines in the recreation center to show that it converts exercise into electricity, supplying it back into the university’s power grid.

Texas State earned the title “world’s largest human power plant” because of its stock of 30 machines.

Clearwater, Fla., -based ReRev., is the only company in the world that builds the technology.

The 30 machines with sensors and other equipment were modified by the Texas State in the amount of $20,000. It transforms kinetic energy produced by exercise into electricity. It can charge a cell phone six times more or power a laptop computer for one hour with one 3o-minute workout.

A sticker on every machine has tips for reducing energy consumption in student’s everyday lives.

It is to instill the idea of sustainability in their minds and not produce enough power to run the university. In seven or eight years, the university could recover the money they spent although it is not essential than the learning factor.

Blair Hart-ley, a graduate student who assisted to develop the project for an independent-study class said that the project will tell students the amount of physical energy it will take to produce a minimal amount of electricity.

The students have already proven that they are sincere about getting green.

Students paid $1 for an environmental fund that sponsors project like a rainwater collection system and a big fertilizer pile that converts cafeteria waste into rich soil.

Calories to Kilowatts was paid half by the fund while the other half was paid by the campus recreation.