Sainsbury's extends kinetic energy systems to UK store

The UK's third largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's Supermarkets, announced that a store opening tomorrow will be powered in part by its customers' vehicles.

The new store in Gloucester has road plates embedded in the surface of the parking lot. When vehicles drive over the plates in any direction, the plates are pushed down, which turns generators that create energy used in the store.

Sainsbury's said the kinetic energy system does not affect the vehicle or its fuel efficiency; however, some scientists say there is a minor impact from such road-plate systems.

It's not the first time Sainsbury's has sought to harness kinetic energy from road plates. Hayward, Calif.-based AEST has signed a deal to install road plates at a Sainsbury's truck depot in Pinehurst, England. AEST is currently raising funds to fulfill that and other contracts (see AEST harnessing kinetic energy from roads).

The Gloucester road plate system was developed by UK-based startup Highway Energy Systems to produce 30 kilowatts of green energy an hour.

Other environmental features of the store include a rainwater harvesting system to fill toilets, a solar thermal water heating system, efficient water usage, the use of natural daylight, automatic dimming lights, LEDs, and other efficiency improvements.

Across the chain, Sainsbury's has attempted to green its operations. In February, it announced plans to outfit five trucks with hybrid systems that use a combination of diesel fuel and biomethane made from landfill waste. The dual-fuel technology was developed by High Wycombe, UK-based Clean Air Power (AIM:CAP).

In January, Sainsbury's said it would use its unsold food in Scotland to power a biomass plant near Motherwell, about 15 miles southeast of Glasgow (see Sainsbury's to send unsold food to UK biomass plant). The chain plans to expand the effort in all its stores, with a goal to stop sending food waste to landfills by summer and any waste by the end of the year.

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