Painting: The slave market, Gustave Boulanger, 1882.
Unlike solar and wind energy, human power is always available. However, unlike a windmill, a solar panel or an oil barrel, human power needs to be motivated in order to produce energy. If we make a switch to human power production, would everybody generate their own power for the sake of sustainability? Would people pay others to do it for them? Or, would they force others to do it for them?
A financial reward won’t do the trick, because at the current energy prices in the Netherlands, a student generating electricity would earn only 0.015€ per hour. Consequently, unless environmental awareness increases dramatically, the use of human power could open the door to new forms of slavery. Is such slavery justified for a reduction in CO2-emissions? Could we force refugees or criminals to produce power?
These are disturbing questions, because the history of human power is -- broadly -- also the history of slavery. These days we import oil, coal and uranium, in the past we imported slaves. Luckily, there may be a third possibility. We can try and motivate people by making energy production fun, social, and exciting.
The few commercially available devices for human energy production are entirely focused on energy efficiency -- there's no attention to fun or motivation. They are also designed for emergency purposes, not for prolonged and daily use. For example, most hand cranks are made as compact as possible, while a larger device would be much more comfortable to use.
In our prototype human power plant, we are searching for ways to improve this. We also explore the merits of discouraging human power production. If we have to generate our own power, we might need less of it.
Comments