inside ases | chair’s corner pedal power revisited By John re
YnoLds, FAiA John Reynolds, FAIA, is chair of the American Solar
Energy Society board. Contact him at this issue’s article, “Let
the Solar Revolution Begin” (page 24), inspires us with high-
tech approaches for energy production. For a lower-tech view, I
want to revisit the human-powered option. In the May/June 2007
issue of SOLAR TODAY, “ 6 Reasons to Use Pedal Power,” I argued
for person-powered transportation. Now consider human activity
as a source of electricity generation. Hitching a stationary
exercise bicycle to a generator is not a new idea, although it
is rare. Many years ago a group of futurist architects
envisioned a community where a multitude of exercise bikes would
be used to gradually pull down a huge inclined spring; the
spring represented a battery of kinetic energy. As electricity
was needed, the spring would return to its upright position,
powering a generator as it released its stored kinetic energy.
The spring would constitute