Holland Puts a New Spin on Old Technology to Combat Climate Change

A cafe in the Dutch town of Zeist has installed a revolving door which generates electricity as you pass through.

Written by Ben Robinson

Holland has led the way in wind power for centuries. With a quarter of the country lying below sea level they have traditionally used windmills to pump out the water. They currently have the world’s largest offshore wind farm, generating enough power to supply more than 100,000 homes. They are also famous in harnessing human power for transport. Anyone who has been to Amsterdam has seen the millions of bicycles on the streets. So what are they up to now?

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Well, it would seem that this forward thinking country is ahead of the game once again. A new restaurant situated at the train station in the town of Zeist has been working with the design company Rau in order to reduce their carbon footprint. They’ve come up with an innovative idea in the form of a power generation system fuelled by their own customers - They have installed a generator in their revolving door which converts the energy of people passing through into electricity. Each time you pass through the door you generate enough power to make a cup of coffee. The owners estimate that the door will generate approximately 4600 KWH per year. They are also investing in other ways to reduce their energy requirements such as a special low energy cooling system, a sun collector, and of course the obligatory Dutch windmill.

As a low lying country, the Netherlands is potentially one of the countries to be most affected by sea level rise. As usual they are leading the way in developing ingenious means to reduce their need for fossil fuels. Imagine how much power we could produce if every revolving door or turnstile was equipped with this kind of energy capture technology? One small cafe in Holland may not produce much of an impact on its own, but just think how much power could be generated by such a system in a busy subway station in London or New York?

Image credit: Frank Za’atar at Flickr under a Creative Commons license