Breakthroughs in Piezoelectric Power: Raising Public Awareness
is a Step in the Right Direction for U.S. Sustainable Development
Kim Diamond, Vice Chair of the Carbon and Energy Trading and Finance Committee, ABA
Efforts are afoot internationally to incorporate piezoelectricity into the clean energy mainstream. While
state-of-the art uses of this electricity-generating technology have debuted in countries such as England, the
Netherlands, Japan, and Israel, the U.S. is currently running at the back of the pack of global leaders in this
space. News about scientific breakthroughs enabling
piezoelectric devices to be incorporated as sustainable
building materials has not yet percolated to Americans’
mainstream awareness level. This needs to change.
Wide scale employment of piezoelectric power as an
energy source is no longer merely a conceptual notion
fit to appear in science fiction novels. Revolutionary
developments in piezoelectric technology now permit
the kinetic energy generated from people walking and
dancing, as well as from moving vehicles, to be converted into clean power. Innovative devices employing
piezoelectricity offer vast public benefits and potential
business opportunities in both the long and short terms.
Increased piezoelectricity usage could be a trend that
plays a significant role in shaping tomorrow’s world
in the alternative energy sector as well as in financial
markets. Consequently, new scientific and technological
advances in piezoelectric inventions merit endorsement
and should be raised to the forefront of U.S. domestic
public consciousness and discourse.
Piezoelectricity is not a new concept to physicists and
engineers. The word “piezoelectricity” is derived from
the Greek words “piezo” or “piezein,” which mean “to
squeeze or press.” French scientists discovered this
technology in the 1880s. In basic terms, piezoelectricity
is the ability of select materials, such as quartz crystals
and certain ceramics, to generate an electrical charge
when a form of mechanical pressure is applied. The
applied charge generates voltage across the material.
Common devices that use piezoelectrics include quartz
watches, sonar, and motion detectors. Gas lighter wands
also draw upon piezoelectrics, as squeezing the lighter
trigger causes impact on a piezoelectric crystal, which
in turn produces enough voltage to produce a spark and
ignite the gas.
Applying the “Crowd Farming” Concept
Today, there are many more remarkable uses for this
previously little-hyped technology. Through modern
research and development, the kinetic energy people
produce when walking or dancing can now be harvested through the use of piezoelectric floors and floor
mats. Thanks to the piezoelectric dance floors installed
in London’s Club Surya, an eco-nightclub launched in
July 2008, and Rotterdam’s Wvatt, a sustainable dance
club launched in September 2008, all dancers at these
establishments truly have electric moves. The clubs’
“bouncing” dance floors are engineered with springs and
series of crystal and ceramic blocks. When patrons at
each club dance, the pressure they exert on these blocks
causes the dance floor to depress slightly and the blocks
to rub against each other. The result is the generation
of a small electric current. This process effectively captures the dancers’ kinetic energy, and feeds it into nearby
batteries. In Club Surya, for instance, batteries power
the club’s lights and air conditioning, and supply up to
approximately 60 percent of the club’s energy needs. As
long as clubbers dance, the floor’s movement constantly
recharges the batteries. The more dancing, the more
power produced. Each person can produce between five
and 20 watts, depending on their activity level.
In addition to its application in foreign dance clubs,
the concept of “crowd farming,” or harvesting power
from people’s footsteps in crowded areas, has also been
applied in overseas subway stations. In an effort to make
train stations in the national Japanese railway network
more energy efficient, the East Japan Railway Com-
pany (JR East) worked in conjunction with researchers
from Keio University to embed piezoelectric pads in the
floors under the ticket gates in Tokyo Station. Because
high volumes of passengers pass through these gates on
a regular basis, a respectable amount of electricity is
produced. Similar to the mechanics used in piezoelectric
dance floors, crystals embedded in the piezoelectric pads
convert the vibrations and pressure from people’s footsteps into electrical charges. These charges are routed
to highly efficient power storage systems that provide
clean power to other parts of the station, including the
lighting fixtures. JR East envisions using this “people
power” to operate automatic ticket gates or electric displays in the near future.
Taking the crowd farming concept a step further, innovators in Israel have recently unveiled perhaps the most
novel electricity-generating surface to date: a piezoelectric road. The roadway containing this technology
has an asphalt surface in which piezoelectric crystals
are embedded. Similar to the way gargantuan footsteps would create pressure on a floor or mat, vehicles’
turning tires create pressure on the road. When vehicles pass over the road, the road’s embedded crystals
transform the vehicles’ kinetic energy into an electrical
current. The current then runs to a larger transformer,
which then distributes the energy. In addition to working
in asphalt, these crystals and transformers also work in
other surfaces, such as concrete. The beauty of this technology is that the piezoelectric generators not only may
be installed in new roads, but they also may be incorporated into existing roadways that are being resurfaced. It
is envisioned that due to the generators being only a few
centimeters thick and being able to cover expansive surfaces, these generators in the future could be adapted for
use in railways and airport runways.
Imagining the Possibilities for a Brighter Future
If U.S. business people and policy makers endorsed the
implementation of high-tech piezoelectric devices such
as those discussed above, there would be profound implications for investors, business owners, and local sustainable development planners. From a business perspective, entrepreneurs in the clubbing industry who install
piezoelectric floors could attract to their venues customers who want to be viewed as hip and eco-friendly
simultaneously. Private health and fitness clubs that
install piezoelectric floors or mats in their main aerobic
exercise rooms could gain additional notoriety, thereby
attracting a health-conscious and energy-conscious clientele that may have otherwise contemplated joining
other gym facilities.
On a grander scale, for large commercial real estate
properties such as office buildings or shopping malls,
the owners and tenants alike would reap economic benefits from installing piezoelectric floors or pads. A property containing such flooring would likely draw attention
and garner local, if not regional or national, publicity.
In the public’s eye, the structure would be transformed
from an ordinary structure into a unique, landmark location, which could raise the building’s property value.
Based solely on the panache of being located in one of
the first U.S. commercial properties to install and showcase piezoelectric flooring, tenants could benefit in the
short term from having an address at such a visible location. Presumably, the novelty of having such fascinating
flooring throughout -- or at a minimum, at entrances and
exits where foot traffic is the heaviest -- could attract
guests and tourists who ordinarily would not have visited
such building, thereby generating additional foot traffic
and energy for the building itself. In the case of storefront tenants in malls, this extra foot traffic could pay
off insofar as the additional consumers visiting the property may generate more revenue for these tenants. Moreover, tenants could benefit from the potential rent reduction they would receive from the building’s owner(s)
passing to them the cost savings realized through the
building’s producing its own on-site electricity and its
corresponding reduced electric utility bills.
Because wide-scale domestic publicity about piezoelectric technology has not occurred thus far, U.S. cities that
could substantially benefit from this clean, sustainable
technology may not yet comprehend the realm of possibilities available to them. For instance, select groups of
people, such as architects and engineers, may be aware
of the piezoelectric sidewalk in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
that powers LED lights in the sidewalk itself. However, mainstream newspapers and other media have provided little national exposure about the manifestation of
this technological breakthrough on domestic soil. This
absence of sufficient news coverage should not result
in a failure to spark Americans’ imaginations of how to
capitalize upon piezoelectric building and infrastructure
development. Imagine how much power could be generated by installing piezoelectric flooring at just one dance
club, large office building, mass transit station, or sidewalk segment in a large pedestrian area. If sidewalks on
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the Las Vegas strip or in parts of New York City, such
as in the Times Square or Rockefeller Center area, were
retrofitted using piezoelectric technology, the constant,
heavy foot traffic on these walkways alone could likely
generate a substantial amount of energy -- potentially
enough to light several city blocks. The continuous foot
traffic on piezoelectric floors or mats in major subway,
train, or bus stations, such as in New York’s Penn Station or Grand Central Station, could power the lighting
or automatic turnstiles at these locations.
In the infrastructure development area, piezoelectric
technology could benefit states and other private owners
of interstate routes, roadways, and heavily trafficked
thoroughfares. Congested highways and freeways could
undergo a transformation -- no longer would their sole
purpose be to facilitate pollution-emitting, fossil fuelburning modes of transportation. Rather, these roadways
could be tremendous lifelines that pump clean energy
back into the energy grid. The busier the roadway and
the heavier the vehicles, the more energy that could be
produced and harnessed. It is mind-boggling to think of
the collective amount of electricity that could be generated from the 405, the 5, or the other freeways in the
greater Los Angeles area, the Capital Beltway in the
Washington, D.C., area, or the turnpikes and parkways
surrounding New York City. Interstate routes monitored
by local state authorities would reap the benefit of being
able to retrofit roadways with piezoelectric technology
during standard maintenance intervals, rather than
paying an extra premium for having to develop additional sites flanking these roadways to install completely
new infrastructure for other alternative energy projects.
Even in smaller cities, heavily trafficked streets could
potentially produce a sizeable amount of energy.
Investing in Ground Floor Opportunities
Of course, as is true with investments in other cutting
edge technologies, investing in domestic piezoelectric
flooring and roadway projects entails risks and has its
downsides and challenges. Due to the uniqueness of this
technology, there are relatively few manufacturers of the
necessary piezoelectric materials. This limited supply of
distributors, coupled with the scarcity of the products
on the global market, causes the price for piezoelectric
materials to be quite high. Also, because the technology
is still relatively new and in an emerging developmental
stage, there are design improvement issues related to
durability and power generation efficiency that still
need to be addressed. Additionally, the cost of capturing,
transmitting, and converting the current generated from
the capture of kinetic energy are quite high. This may be
problematic for owners contemplating installing piezoelectric flooring or roads on their property for several
reasons. First, the costs associated with piezoelectric
flooring and roadways may outweigh a contemplated
project’s projected monetary benefits, particularly in
the short term. Second, owners who cannot afford the
costs of start-up capital for piezoelectric installations
may experience difficulty obtaining financing from traditional sources. Specifically, lending institutions tend
to be conservative and risk adverse. Because of the
extremely limited history and track record of piezoelectric flooring and roadway projects nationally and internationally, these established financial institutions may
deem the piezoelectric project too risky and determine
not to finance the project. Securing funding sources for
contemplated piezoelectric projects, particularly in the
current limping economy, may prove challenging.
On the other hand, there is a definite upside to investing
in U.S. projects aimed at incorporating piezoelectric
technology at this time. While investing in any relatively new technology is risky, investing in piezoelectric
technology while it is still in its infancy could prove to
be quite lucrative. With higher risks often come greater
rewards. By taking a calculated risk and investing in projected growth areas for future piezoelectric projects, such
as retrofitting or building new shopping malls, stadiums,
airports, highways, and commercial real estate buildings
that employ piezoelectric devices, venture capitalists
and other savvy investors could stand to profit greatly
over the long term. New advances and breakthroughs
in piezoelectric technology could emerge during the
approval stages of the project, and be integrated into the
building phase of the project, given the time between
when the initial investment in the project is made, and
the time that elapses before actual construction begins.
This could be an attractive feature for consortiums interested in securing a 50-year or other long-term concession for building, financing, operating, and maintaining
a fixed stretch of a roadway corridor, such as between
interstate routes and toll roads.
Also, companies and business owners who incorporate
piezoelectric technology into new buildings’ architecture or who retrofit existing structures with this technology will garner positive press and enhance their
reputation as being a leader in this futuristic clean tech“Breakthroughs...” Page 3
nology area. These entities would be viewed as “good
deed enablers,” due to their promoting and facilitating
other people’s ability to perform the meritorious, charitable act of donating their own kinetic energy for the
greater social good.
Creating a Class by Itself
From an investment banking perspective, if a certain
threshold of increased demand is reached over the next
decade or two for secured borrowing for large-scale
piezoelectric projects, then there is the potential that a
new esoteric asset class involving piezoelectric loans
or bonds could be formed. The creation of such securities, backed by infrastructure-related or commercial real
estate-related debt, could herald additional transaction
structuring and trading opportunities in the capital markets. For instance, asset-backed securities in the form
of piezoelectric infrastructure or commercial real estate
loans could be used in the future as collateral for structured finance transactions such as collateralized loan
obligations (CLOs), or other structured investment vehicles. Other innovative fixed income securities incorporating the cash flows from piezoelectric bond receivables could also be formulated, structured, and traded.
As a matter of policy, it makes sense to engage in robust
discussions about the merits and feasibility of promising
technologies for incorporation into the current potpourri
of available alternative energy and sustainable development options. Piezoelectric flooring and roadway technology warrants such discussion. Increased domestic
public discourse will not only raise the profile of this
technology nationally, but it will facilitate Americans’
ability to participate more vigorously in the larger global
dialogue focused on the development, refinement, and
implementation of this technology worldwide. Failure to
partake in such endeavor may have a detrimental impact
on the U.S.’s ability to shape or influence the course of
how this technology evolves in the global marketplace.
A lack of awareness of opportunities involving piezoelectric technology may also preclude U.S. participation
in piezoelectric project finance endeavors and other integrated finance and technology transactions being contemplated elsewhere in the world. It may also slow the
emergence of future structured finance products based
on the expected income streams from piezoelectric bond
or loan receivables.
To achieve and maintain the status as a global leader
in the sustainable development arena, the U.S. must
be more proactive in its communicating to the general
public newsworthy achievements and other technological breakthroughs in the alternative energies space, such
as piezoelectric flooring and roadways. As a national
community, our collective deficient knowledge about
groundbreaking projects in other countries that involve
piezoelectric technology may limit our ability to take
advantage of developments in this growing area and be a
future market leader in structuring novel financial transactions involving securities backed by piezoelectricbased assets. Domestic policymakers, business leaders,
and others now have the unique chance to capitalize on
piezoelectric technology while it is in its infancy. It is
to our advantage as a nation to supply such people with
sufficient information and public input about this technology so that they will be in a better position to make
informed investment decisions and to choose whether
to advocate for this technology’s implementation at this
time. Other countries are testing, financing, and starting
to embrace state-of-the-art developments in piezoelectric technology. As a country, it is time we followed
step.
Kim Diamond is Counsel in the Investment Management group of Lowenstein Sandler, in the firm’s New York City office. In
addition to a diversified practice that includes the representation of domestic and international commercial banks, financial
institutions, asset managers, funds, sponsors and large corporations in complex multi-million and multi-billion dollar transactions in the public and private markets, Ms. Diamond is involved in various renewable and alternative energy initiatives. She
is currently the editor of the American Bar Association’s Carbon Trading and Energy Finance Committee Newsletter.
Reprinted with permission
from: EnergyPulse™
April 17, 2009
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