COP26: Nightclubs as human power stations? Heat on the dancefloor to be harnessed as renewable energy – Scotsman comment

Renewable energy comes in many forms – such as wind, wave, solar, and tidal – but one source we have perhaps overlooked is the human body itself.
The launch part for the Bodyheat project at SWG3 in GlasgowThe launch part for the Bodyheat project at SWG3 in Glasgow
The launch part for the Bodyheat project at SWG3 in Glasgow

Some years ago, the BBC science show Bang Goes The Theory tested whether a team of cyclists were capable of providing enough energy to power a modern home for a day. When someone decided to have a shower, some 78 cyclists had to peddle flat out to ensure the water did not run cold.

However, strength and stamina are not our only sources of energy, we also produce large amounts of heat, and rarely more so than when large numbers of people gather in an enclosed space to dance.

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Nightclubs are routinely described as “hot and sweaty” and yet, for the most part, that heat has been wasted.

However Glasgow venue SWG3 is planning to store this heat in boreholes in its garden area to be used as energy to power an air-conditioning system to cool clubbers down. It could also be used to heat artist’s studios at SWG3.

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Andrew Fleming-Brown, of SWG3, said the enforced shutdown during lockdown and the “longing to be in a room of thousands of sweaty people on the dance floor” had helped inspire the system.

With some clubs putting tables and chairs on their dance floors amid continued concern about Covid, this new manifestation of ‘people power’ might act as an extra incentive to those young enough to enjoy such things to get themselves vaccinated and back in the groove.

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