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Green Microgym

The Green Microgym system makes gym-goers feel good beyond the endorphin release they get from exercise; its goal is to run the gym solely on the energy it generates. All the while the business benefits from the energy efficiencies that grow as clients’ waistlines shrink.

Sweat shop electricity

People expound a lot of energy at gyms on treadmills, rowing machines, and bikes. The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon is one of a handful of gyms around the world harnessing that energy and spinning it into electricity.

“Almost all exercise equipment has a spinning wheel, and if you can spin a wheel, you can make electricity.”

Adam Boesel
Owner
The Green Microgym

The Green Microgym aims to create all the energy it requires, through a combination of solar panels and adapted exercycles that create and store energy generated by gym-goers as they work out. The idea has been extended by HenryWorks, a Texas company that has developed The Human Dynamo, a set of four exercycles that connect to a storage battery powering appliances and lights around the club. Microgym members are offered more in return than just feeling good about the gym’s self sufficiency; every hour on a adapted spin bike or treadmill earns one dollar towards a ten dollar voucher that can be redeemed for drinks in the club, or at a local restaurant.

Next comes developing an effective mass storage system, and connecting the sweat-powered energy directly to the local grid making the concept more appealing to larger gyms with correspondingly larger utility bills. In the meantime, the efficiencies gained by the Green Microgym is helping the bottom line while attracting attention and custom.

 

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