In 2009 entrepreneur Laurence Kemball-Cook had a vision to find a way of building a smarter and more sustainable environment which could empower and connect people. With the pressures of climate change and rapidly expanding cities, society currently faces complex environmental and social challenges.

This was why Kemball-Cook decided to develop Pavegen, a technology that enables people to directly engage with clean energy, to increase their understanding of sustainability and build purposeful connections with brands.

Pavegen creates flooring that harvests the kinetic energy of people’s footsteps as they walk over it and this then generates electricity. This tile technology is combined with a back-end system that stores and manages the renewable energy.

Kemball-Cook knew that in order to provoke change, people’s behaviour needed to change and technology alone is not enough to make cities perform better. This is why Pavegen’s concept is so effective, because it combines physical interactivity and rich data to help bring smart cities to life.

So how does it all work? As people step on the tiles, their weight causes electromagnetic induction generators to vertically displace and this results in a rotary motion that generates off-grid electricity. If this isn’t impressive enough, each tile is also equipped with a wireless API that transmits real-time movement data analytics, whilst directly producing power when and where it is needed. With the supporting abilities of today’s smart technology, Pavegen is also able to connect to a range of mobile devices and building management systems.

In 2016 the company launched a sleeker version of its tile that is more efficient in terms of product costs and energy output.

Pavegen continues to strive to become a permanent and commercial smart-flooring solution evolving from just one energy generating tile to an entire array with three multi-functional component parts; data, floor and energy.

Pavegen’s innovative process of creating flooring that harvests kinetic energy from people’s footsteps is considered as Research and Development. As a result the company is eligible for a significant rebate on its R&D expenditure. The available tax relief on R&D activities is very generous and should be utilised, to find out more contact a Swanson Reed R&D specialist today.