The pros and cons of an eco-friendly nightclub

IT IS often said that environmentalists are too dour and self-denying to convert the frivolous mass of consumers to their cause. Tell that to the owners of Surya, a new disco in London that claims to be "the world's first ecological club". Its founder, Andrew Charalambous, believes that "all you have to do is dance to save the world."

That sounds like something of an over-simplification. But Surya is full of green features. For starters, it generates all its power on-site through various renewable technologies, and even has some left over to donate to neighbours. There is a wind turbine and solar panels, along with batteries to store some of their output. More strikingly, it boasts a piezoelectric dance floor, which generates power thanks to the motion of the happy patrons jumping up and down. ...



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Theres a gym in my city thats getting props for having the bike machines wired to put power into the grid.

Compared to the energy used to run the lights, heat the water for the guys shower after he works out and build the bike in the first place its nothing more than lip service - but the more energy we start capturing the better, i mean town hall train station does heat any air in winter, but re-circulates the warm air from people being crammed on the underground platforms..

Again its nothing compared to the energy being expended already - but if we get up to speed with every little energy saving/optimising/efficiency thing that we can do it can start to add up.