Country: Italy
Category: Energy
Name: Veranu
Project aim: to generate clean energy and additional IoT services by simply walking on it.
How did Veranu started?
The Veranu’s story started in the University of Cagliari. There we were studied different piezoelectric materials that today are used to convert the kinetic energy of steps into electricity. These materials are contained inside a PLA (polylactic acid) box, a recycling plastic that derives from renewable resources, such as corn starch.
Veranu is a Sardinian word that means “Spring” and it wants to represent the development of Sardinian ideas in Europe and around the world.
How does it work?
The increase of CO2 emissions pushed us to develop a new technology that could be another small step into a more sustainable society. Veranu can provide 2 J/step; a LED street light could be switched on with 20 steps and a smartphone battery could be recharged with 10.000 steps.
Installing a floor of 20 m2 with a 7 million people flow we forecast a payback of 3 years.
The size of the tile is 30x30x4 cm3 with the weight of 1 kg. Veranu will be waterproof and easy to install and to maintenance thanks to its modular structure.
How is it evolving?
Today there is not such a technology that can provide data about the point-to-point movement of people, there are only technologies that can provide the number of people at one point. Veranu can detect, acquire and sell these data for marketing or logistics.
Until now we developed two prototypes and in the 2017 we are planning the first demo installations in places with a high flow of people to test the real performance and show the product to the public.
We operate in the Energy harvesting market that is fast-growing and include all systems that generate clean energy by renewable sources. The energy harvesting system market is expected to grow and will be worth an estimated of 974.4 Million USD by 2022 at a CAGR of 19.6% between 2016 and 2022.
How can you define your team?
Our team belong to the Erasmus generation, we travelled around Europe thanks to the Erasmus programme, the Erasmus young Entrepreneur and the AEGEE. Europe and this award is an opportunity to meet other cultures and points of view, and to create new synergies and relationships.
This European final represent a step forward for a Sardinia opened to Europe and the world.