Player power: Hi-tech soccer pitch harnesses action on field to power lights

Billed as Brazil’s first player-powered soccer pitch, a field inaugurated Wednesday in a Rio de Janeiro slum harnesses the kinetic energy of players’ movements to provide nighttime illumination. Soccer legend Pele was on hand for the pomp-filled event in the Morro da Mineira slum, which saw a local youth team put the system to the test. Under the project, sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, around 200 energy-capturing tiles developed by British startup Pavegen were installed the width and breadth of the field and covered by a layer of AstroTurf. Working in conjunction with solar panels also installed around the field, the player-powered tiles feed electricity to a system of floodlights overhead.

We’ve effectively turned this community into a real-life science experiment. I believe this technology can be one of the future ways we illuminate our cities.

Pavegen chairman Richard Kemball-Cook

The technology behind Pavegen’s tiles uses a system of cogs which, when stepped on, spin like tops and act like generators. Pavegen has installed similar tiles in train stations in Europe, shopping centers in Australia and Terminal 3 of London’s Heathrow Airport, but the soccer field is a first. Pele got emotional over the project, tearing up as he said he hoped the new field would help spark local kids’ interest not only in soccer but in science. He said he hopes the next generation of Brazilians will help bring the country as much success in science as it has had in soccer.

My father named me Edson after Thomas Edison. I’m sure that soon the No. 1 scientists in the world are going to be Brazilians.

Pele, whose birth name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento

Technology