University of Bath graduate student, Humza Gillett-Waller, has developed a pavement tile that can harvest energy from footsteps. The design was inspired by a trip to the Leonardo Da Vinci museum in Florence, where Gillett-Waller saw a model showing a method of harnessing hydro energy for moving large objects. The tiles use piezoelectric materials to generate electrical power when a load is applied. When a force is applied, for example, from a person walking across the tile, the electrons are displaced, which creates a potential difference (voltage). As the charges accumulate for each cell, a potential difference is produced across the whole material. The energy accumulates after every footfall. A full-wave rectifier is used to harvest energy on both the ‘downstroke’ and the ‘upstroke’ of the footfall.