It takes energy to walk, ride a bike, or perform any of the actions you go through during a day. But you actually end up generating energy as you go as well — kinetic energy. It’s just that most of that isn’t really put to any use other than to move you forward. Enter the nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator).
The PEG made an appearance at CES this week, and Mari Silbey of Zatz Not Funny got a chance to check it out. The little device looks lik ea 9 inch telescope, but it has a 1000mAh lithium polymer battery and and a micro USB port that you can use to connect your phone or other gadgets and transfer a bit of juice from the PEG battery to your gizmo.
But here’s the good thing: You don’t plug the PEG into the wall when you want to recharge its battery. Instead you throw it in your bag and as you move, it uses the kinetic energy to charge the battery. Walk for eleven minutes and you’ve got enough juice for one minute of talk time on an iPhone 2G. You can speed up the process by giving the nPower PEG a good shake.
Right now the system is really tailored to small devices like smartphones. In the future we could see more powerful versions that could let you charge your laptop while you trudging from class to class on a college campus, or hiking in the woods.
Unfortunately, the PEG doesn’t come cheap. It will run you $160, and the device is currently backordered. But it wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t get a solar charger for less than that price — and unlike a solar charge, the PEG should work even at night or on cloudy days.
Price drop! The nPowerPEG just went from $200 all the way down to $130! Plus that promo code, IN5SCKZS, still works for free shipping.
This is finally available for sale through nPowerPEG. Use the code “IN5SCKZS” and you’ll get free shipping.