World Cup Scoop: Kick Goals & Generate Energy

The World Cup has unearthed a lot of football talent, but thanks to Luke Whistler of the FWR Group, it also uncovered a great scoop. A soccer ball that generates and stores energy while it’s being kicked around. It generates enough energy to power an LED light or charge a small electronic device–which may not seem like much power. But in Africa, it could literally mean the difference between life and death.

By Brian Merchant in PlanetGreen:

It’s a pretty ingenious idea, there’s no doubt about that: a soccer ball that generates and stores energy while it’s being kicked around. It generates enough energy to power an LED light or charge a small electronic device–which may not seem like much power. But in Africa, it could literally mean the difference between life and death.

Not to get melodramatic there, but it’s true in a sense. A common way for developing nations to get light is to burn kerosene lamps. And these lamps are terribly harmful to human health—when burned indoors, they create an effect that’s equivalent to inhaling two packs of cigarettes a day. It’s hard to determine how many deaths are caused by kerosene, but there’s no doubt there are far too many.

There’s also the environmental impact to consider—kerosene lamps also contribute 190 million tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere a year, or 38 million cars’ worth. So wouldn’t it be nice if all those dangerous, polluting kerosene lamps could be replaced with a community-building, exercise-promoting game? Indeed it would.

Green Inc. explains how the sOccket ball would work:

Early prototypes of the ball use an inductive coil mechanism similar to the technology found in shake-to-charge flashlights. The movement of the ball forces a magnet through a metal coil that “induces” voltage in the coil to generate electricity. For each 15 minutes of play, the ball can store enough energy to illuminate a small LED light for three hours.

The idea is fast gaining traction–soccer is incredibly popular in many developing nations, Africa included. Players are known to kick the ball around for 8 hours a day–so why not convert that into usable energy?

The group behind sOccket, which initially conceived the idea as a class project at Harvard, recently tested the ball in South Africa. It seemed to be a hit, even though it’s not quite on par with normal balls: “Obviously, this won’t be a regulation ball,” Ms Lin, one of the founders, told Green Inc. “You won’t see David Beckham using it. But it’s a big improvement over some of the makeshift balls the kids create from things like old plastic bags.”

Now, the group is faced with finding a way to make enough sOcckets to deploy to developing nations. But they’ve already got a plan:

Using a “buy one-give one” model, the sOccket team hopes to sell the ball in Western markets, as a high-end tech gadget, then use the profits to distribute the balls at little or no cost in poor countries through development organizations like Whizz Kids United.

It seems like a fine idea, if development issues can be overcome—they may be difficult to mass produce. This will definitely be an idea to watch.

Source: www.planetgreen.discovery.com and www.fwrgroup.com.au