The nPower PEG – short for Personal Energy Generator – is the latest invention to come to life in the ‘people powered ideas’ space.
This clever little device can be tucked away in your rucksack or pocket for the day and as you move it creates energy and stores the charge inside. The device has a connection point (which is compatible with over 3,000 different chargers) where you can attach your phone, iPod or other device to it to gain charge. It’s the perfect combo of getting people to plug out while walking.
If you’re a bit of a phone addict, you might have to start running marathons to get the kind of juice you need to keep you phone charged (you only get one minute of charge per 15 minutes walked) but it’s handy to have so you’ll always have access to charge. Also, apparently excessive shaking of the device does speed up the energy generating process.
To see some more ingenious people powered ideas, check out this revolving door and the Playpump, a children’s merry-go-round attached to a water pump and storage tank that provides essential clean drinking water to children and families in rural Africa.
Katherine Hui is currently the Social site editor at Green Thing, a web-based public service in London that inspires people to lead greener lives through creative content.
Before this, she worked as the Development Manager at Social Innovation Camp, an organization that encourages people to use web and mobile-based technology to mobilise social change. She oversaw 300 ideas submission and helped build 20 prototypes – five of which have gone on to get further funding or investment.
Katherine’s came over to the UK form Canada in 2007 for an MSc program at the London School of Economics. Before arriving in London, she managed a small environmental start-up in Vancouver called the Canadian Climate Change Alliance.
Katherine is football mad. She is a loyal supporter of Arsenal FC, plays for Islington Borough Ladies FC and coaches for Gunners in Islington in her spare time. Her second favourite hobby is kite surfing and she can sometimes be found chasing the wind.
