Football Pitch in Nigeria Powered by Kinetic Energy: Vanity Project for Oil Multinational or Future for Renewables?

An innovative new football pitch in Lagos opened in December using power generated by the players running on special tiles that capture kinetic energy. The project at the Federal College of Education in Akoka is supported by multinational oil company Shell and uses technology developed by British company Pavegen.

“We found a community that had no light, has no way at night time for people to socialise or play sport,” Pavegen founder Laurence Kemball-Cook told RFI. “We're creating a real legacy project here to really change the way energy used and viewed in Africa,” he adds.

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More than 90 tiles located under the pitch capture kinetic energy generated by the movement of the players.

“Each tile produces up to 7 watts of power per footstep,” says Kemball-Cook. “If you had 8 people continuously walking over the tiles you could produce up to 56 watts of power continuously.”