Menu
Facilities

Tech Firm Pavegen's Player-Powered Field In Brazil Draws Global Media Coverage

Just two months after the World Cup’s conclusion in July, British technology company Pavegen’s installation of the world’s first player-powered football field brought global media attention back to Brazil on Sept. 10. The subject of the spotlight was a football pitch in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Morro da Mineira where Pavegen installed 200 of its patented energy-absorbing tiles under a layer of AstroTurf. Shell partnered with Pavegen as the project’s sponsor. With some help from Pelé, the inauguration -- which featured a local youth team putting the field to use -- drew coverage from a range of int’l publications including the London Daily Mail, the London Telegraph, Time Magazine and the Washington Post, among others. Pavegen CEO & Founder Laurence Kemball-Cook said that the involvement of Pelé, who attended the unveiling, highlighted the former star’s commitment to youth programs. “As a global football legend, in his role he is able to inspire young people to make a difference,” he said. “We saw that on that day. With Pele’s involvement, the whole community was buzzing and we were able to tell the world about what we were doing in Rio.” Buzz from the project has carried over to social media, especially on Twitter, where Pavegen’s official account now has nearly 4,000 followers. “More widely, we’ve seen on social media, it’s gone berserk,” Kemball-Cook said. “We got like 65,000 likes for a post about it, which is crazy. It’s been a mad process for us as a small tech company working with a big brand. ... It’s important that little guys like Pavegen can make a difference.”

Source: Pavegen
HOW IT WORKS: The tiles, described by Pavegen as “kinetic energy, footfall harvesting flooring,” work in tangent with solar panels to power six floodlights surrounding the pitch for up to 10 hours with a fully charged battery. As Kemball-Cook explained it, “How that works is we take the connecting energy from their weight, the tile moves less than 5 millimeters when you walk on it. So no one even notices it, it feels a bit like a running track or a sports pitch. That small movement is converted by our internal system to create up to seven watts of power per step, or running step, or jump or dance move. So you name it, any activity can harness power through our technology without people even realizing it.”
 
FIRST OF MANY
: Pavegen is hopeful the pitch in Rio will soon become one of many. Kemball-Cook said that he would love to see 1,000 pitches installed in the next two years. “There are very few sports where you can link to economic prosperity the type of sport,” Kemball-Cook said. “Through football, we’ve managed to link those things together. You have also seen sports like sailing and Formula One that have a heavy focus on research and technology. In football, it has been limited. ... I think we’re a new revolution in the football industry, where we’ll be able to see people-powered pitches being normal down the line as we scale what we’re trying to do.” Locations where Pavegen will look to install similar fields include Africa and Asia, with Kemball-Cook mentioning China and India in particular. He said he would like to split up future installations, with a third in North America and two-thirds in developing nations throughout Africa and Asia. Kemball-Cook said he also believes player-powered fields could one day be installed at the home of professional teams. “We think why not, why not do this,” he said. “Football especially needs to look harder and search more to find more sustainable solutions for the stadiums. I certainly think that’s something that could happen in the future.” Installing player-powered fields similar to the one in Rio will first require accreditation. Pitches have to meet certain standards in terms of how the ball bounces on the surface and rolls, with the requirements more rigorous at higher levels. Kemball-Cook said the process of acquiring those certifications is underway, as Pavegen already has “some certifications in the U.S.”

ACHIEVING SCALE
: Pavegen tiles cover only 10% of the pitch in Rio. Kemball-Cook said that as the production process is fine-tuned, he would like to see pitches feature more tiles, which would increase the amount of energy harnessed. The 200 tiles installed at the field in Rio cost around $500 apiece, but Kemball-Cook’s goal is for them to one day cost as much as regular flooring. Increasing the production scale represents one of the principal challenges for a hardware startup like Pavegen. Kemball-Cook: “It’s very hard to immediately go to a scale proposition. Scale brings with it reduced costs because the cost is spread across the whole production run. It also allows you to make the assembly process easier and cheaper.” He added that Pavegen is looking to produce thinner, more environmentally friendly tiles. In an effort to reduce carbon payback -- which is currently two years -- the company is using recycled materials. “We believe carbon payback can be even less with further product innovation and we’re also looking towards new materials that will allow us to really innovate and find these new structures that can massively impact the production of the tiles,” Kemball-Cook said. “Making it more efficient is ultimately the goal, to increase the threshold of power that each tile can produce.”

Source: Pavegen
REAPING THE REWARDS: The pitch’s unveiling ended a year-long process in rewarding fashion for Kemball-Cook and Pavegen. The technology invented by Pavegen, which Kemball-Cook founded in ’09, is now present in 15 countries and the company now has 30 employees, with offices in L.A., the U.K. and Europe. Pavegen’s founder said he has enjoyed the recognition his company has received since the project’s completion. “As an entrepreneur, I believed in this idea way back when it was nothing,” he said. “It’s great to see it finally getting the recognition that it deserves.” Kemball-Cook believes the exposure will also pay dividends as Pavegen continues its efforts to secure funding. “I think for us, it’s exciting because it’s really opened us up to a whole new market,” Kemball-Cook said. “We’re just about to do a big fund raise that will allow us to get to the next cycle of scales. A project like this will really help us to get known by people so that we can actually go ahead and raise the investment in the business because people have all heard about us already. It makes life a lot easier.” As an entrepreneur and scientist, watching the children in the favela who assisted with the installation react as their activity lit up the surrounding area also left a mark on Kemball-Cook. “The excitement in their faces when they realized what was actually happening was something that you can’t really even picture,” he said. “It was absolutely out of this world, the feelings they conveyed when they realized what was going on. Ultimately, there simply aren’t enough scientists and engineers in the world today. To develop the energy solutions of tomorrow, we need to inspire the next generation to consider a career in science and hopefully they’ll become a game-changing energy expert in the future.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2014/10/24/Facilities/Pavegen-Field.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2014/10/24/Facilities/Pavegen-Field.aspx

CLOSE