( CNN ) From footfalls to climbing stairs , to opening doors , the cities of the future will look at ways of tapping energy from all the mechanical energy we expend going about our daily lives . When looking at the amount of kinetic energy produced in the average metro station at rush hour , or even on the dance floors of nightclubs , harvesting electricity from human activity makes sense . The technology that makes it possible -- the piezoelectric effect -- is more than 130 years old : in 1880 , the brothers Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered that placing crystals under pressure produced an electric charge . Today , manufacturing technology has made it possible to place piezoelectric devices in the most unlikely places and one company , Pavegen , has developed power-generating systems for pavements , football fields and even school corridors . `` People walk up to 150 million footsteps in their lifetime , '' Pavegen CEO Laurence Kemball-Cook told CNN . `` When I was walking through a busy train station in London I thought what if we can convert the energy from every single person walking at the station into a meaningful amount of power . '' The company 's footfall harvesting technology -- a deflecting pad covered with the type of soft ground surface commonly found in playgrounds - can produce up to 7 watts of energy with each step . Collecting this energy , Kemball-Cook says , is enough to power lights and other small devices for minutes at a time from a mere one hundred or so footfalls . The technology is most effective in areas with high traffic , producing an efficient solution that matches supply with demand . In Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , for instance , the company installed 200 kinetic tiles into a local football pitch in Morro da Mineira -- a favela plagued by blackouts . The Pavegen tiles work day and night alongside solar panels to power the lights for up to 10 hours on a full battery , creating the world 's first ever people-powered football pitch . `` It 's not only a way of inspiring future generations into energy savings but it shows we need different energy mixes , '' Kemball-Cook said . `` Some people walk 40,000 steps a day , so there 's a lot of potential in those wasted footsteps . `` Most people go to a gym so why are we plugging in those treadmills ? Why not have those self-powered to charge your cellphone ? To power the aircon in the building ? Use the energy in a new way ? '' The company this year installed 36 tiles to create two people-powered dance floors at the 20th Essence Festival , placing digital screens in front of the dance floors to display the amount of energy produced during each dance off . Energy-harvesting technology has even been developed for miniature applications including self-powered contact lenses that use blinking as their power source . Much like Google glasses , the battery-free contact lenses could deliver information to a user that would be projected before a users ' eyes as if it were thrown up on a screen . Despite the one-off niche applications , Pavegen has ambitious plans for the sector as a fully scalable renewables producer . Analysts estimate the energy harvesting industry could be worth as much $ 30 billion by 2018 . Read more from Tomorrow Transformed : . NASA 's plan for a floating city above Venus . Wind farms of the future go underwater . Is the Darknet a glimpse into the web of the future ?
A company called Pavegen has developed a technology to turn footsteps into electricity . Walking and other human activities can generate power via piezoelectric cells . The energy is then converted back into electrical current, which you use in your home or office as well. Analysts estimate the energy harvesting industry could be worth as much $ 30 billion by 2018 .