Japanese sports stadiums implementing the use of crowds to generate clean energy

This is an awesome idea! They'll use these panels beneath the feets of the crowds to generate clean energy when they stand up, jump around and cheer on their favorite teams. But I cant find an article about it anywhere on the internet. I saw it on CNN yesterday, so if anybody has a link to an article please post

Here we go:

www.cnn.com...

Stadium Goes Green

AZUZ: Football, baseball, basketball: A lot of sports fans go all out when they cheer for their teams, especially when they're at the stadium. In Japan, there's one soccer stadium that's looking at ways to turn all that fan energy into... energy. Kyung Lah shows us how some fans can root for their team and the environment at the same time.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT, TOKYO: In the game of football, there are few certainties, except for this: fans on their feet, pounding, jumping, never stopping for two hours; energy for the players on the field. But Mie Kiyota, who works for the Vissel Kobe team, saw something else.

MIE KIYOTA, VISSEL KOBE [TRANSLATED]: "There's got to be some way to harness their energy in some sort of eco-friendly way," she thought.

LAH: It turns out, there is. In Japan, the J.R. train began capturing the energy commuters made while walking through the turnstiles. And at Kokwio Station's main Tokyo headquarters, the company is developing its own floor panels which capture the energy of human foot traffic. So, Kiyota convinced the team to join in the emerging kinetic energy panel field. Vissel Kobe bought 24 panels, which landed under the feet of the fan section, where Kazuya Yamashiro is glad his girth is helping the environment.

KAZUYA YAMASHIRO, KOBE VISSEL FAN [TRANSLATED]: "I'm bigger than the other fans," he says...

LAH: ...pointing out that he's able to produce more energy with each heavy jump. The power cord, says Kiyota, carries the fans' energy to a power box, to batteries. The amount of real energy produced in this testing phase is actually quite small. Because the last game was a tie, these three AA batteries were charged. But the stadium is using the energy produced for a real purpose: to power flashlights for the night games. Just the beginning, pledges Kiyota.

Do you envision a day when this entire stadium will have this type of energy flooring?

KIYOTA [TRANSLATED]: I think so. I hope one day this system will be in every seat, producing more clean energy.

LAH: The team hopes football stadiums around the world will see Kobe's small experiment and want to jump in. The biggest stumbling blocks right now, practicality and price tag.