So I've been thinking...

...which sometimes I should avoid. Because I get these incredible breakthrough ideas that usually turn out to be silly when I give them a second look later. This time, I believe that I have come up with a new type of energy production: it's infinitely renewable, it's clean, it's common, and it helps the general population in more than simply providing electricity to their homes.

It's a simple as this. I was reading about a human-powered bicycle-type electrical generator can produce between 125 to 200 watts of electrical power that can be used immediately to power small appliances, or stored in batteries for later use. So I immediately started imagining thousands of gym/electrical plant hybrids popping up all over the world. People could do their hour, hour and half of spinning class, and sell the power produced to the Man (perhaps paid with a reduction in gym dues). Or maybe people could even be paid to ride the bikes for 6 or 7 hours a day. Help them get fit at the same time!

Then I got to thinking that if you put these bike generators in gyms where people go by choice, and in bike sweat farms where the unemployed and overweight gain the double benefits, why not put them in jails and prisons and have the inmates pedal as much as they like for privileges or packs of smokes or decreased time, or whatever.

And then, I thought why not equip ALL bikes with the little generators and allow people to deposit their stored electricity for points or money. And figure a way to save the energy generated by cars decelerating (like the Prius does), and dropping all that extra in the collective energy pot, too. Not sure what to do with all the joggers yet, but there has to be a way to collect their energy too.

In addition, if a person is aware of how much he/she is uploading into the grid, they will also be more aware of what they are taking out, and the effort needed to create it, which can only lead to more conservation.

But then I read this blog: Lee Devlin's Weblog which sort of debunked my whole theory, but I still see something salvageable (plus Lee blogs about the love of an SUV).

But If we were all doing it, it would be something.
I guess my idea is basically a grassroots reinterpretation of energy production, which would require a total shift in the way we think about energy, and how the Man makes us pay for it.

Hmmm. What do you think?