Ann Arbor's POWERleap plans to harness wasted kinetic energy

Elizabeth Redmond's college thesis could soon become the basis for her life after school. POWERleap practically jumped off the pages of her thesis at the School of Art + Design at the University of Michigan and said, 'Commercialize me!'

The idea is to create a system that can capture electricity from something as simple as body movements. How? Well, imagine a technology that could use the kinetic energy produced from someone walking on flooring tiles to supply a house with electricity.

"I wanted to find ways to harness electricity and wasted energy," says Redmond, director of product development for POWERleap.

The Ann Arbor-base start-up has two other partners in New York City. It received a generous grant from a contest held by Metropolis magazine. It's now developing the product and trying to raise more capital funds, a plan that will continue well into 2010. It's in the final phase of negotiating a licensing contract this year.

Source: Elizabeth Redmond, director of product development for POWERleap
Writer: Jon Zemke
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