Heathrow inaugurates "Flow": a corridor illuminated by travellers' footsteps

The Power Floor project, which was a winner in the first edition of the Ferrovial Innovation Awards, is now a reality at Heathrow airport. This interactive corridor, the first of its kind in the world, was inaugurated recently. It’s called “Flow”, and it uses Pavegen technology. The floor, located in Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport, comprises a panel of 100 coloured tiles which capture kinetic energy from passengers’ footsteps and transform it into electricity.

During this process, the tiles light up in different colours, making travellers feel like they’re part of the airport’s infrastructure. Sizeable passenger traffic: every day, more than 5,000 passengers pass through the hallway linking the Terminal 3 waiting area with the departure gates. This movement generates kinetic energy which, for 18 hours a day, converts passengers’ footsteps into electricity and lights up the area.

Miguel Saddler, Augusto Siguero, Lorena Segura and Ignacio Villen won the first edition of the Ferrovial Innovation Awards for this innovative idea. Augusto said they were inspired by a discotheque in Rotterdam, where similar technology is used to light up the floor. Miguel expects the installation will not only improve the passenger experience, but also provide Heathrow Airport with information about traffic patterns, passenger flows, monitoring and queue management, enabling it to analyse the best way to apply this data for advertising purposes, with a view to increasing revenues. Both are very enthusiastic about the possibilities that this technology offers as a sustainable energy source for the future.

Share with us your pictures with “Flow”: We will be using the hashtag #walkandlight in Twitter and Instagram