News and events
Pavegen: Award-winning green graduate company celebrates major new installations
14 February 2011
A company founded by a Loughborough University graduate to develop floor tiles that generate electricity from footsteps is celebrating its first permanent installation in a school and a contract for the Westfield shopping centre on the Olympic site.
Pupils at the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury are now lighting up a corridor simply by walking through it. The tiles will also help the shopping centre in the Westfield Stratford Park ensure it meets stringent targets for environmental sustainability.
The technology turns kinetic energy from footsteps into electricity to power street lighting, information signage and other applications that spring into life when people approach them.
Produced in the UK using recycled tyres, Pavegen tiles are the brain child of Laurence Kemball-Cook who set up a company in 2009. The product has won awards from the Technology Strategy Board and the Chartered Institute of Builders and has been described by Science Minister David Willetts as a "great example of British innovation".
Pavegen is currently being showcased at the Science Museum in London, in the £4.5-million Atmosphere Gallery opened in December by the Prince of Wales, who expressed interest in the wide range of Pavegen applications.
Loughborough University supported the Pavegen technology in its infancy through its Student Business Plan competition and Kemball-Cook was presented with a Graduate Enterprise Award last year. Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, Professor Phill Dickens said: “Pavegen is an excellent example of how our enterprising students can apply their skills to address crucial issues like sustainability. I am delighted to see the company achieve such significant success in just over a year.”