When University of North Texas students work out at Pohl Recreational Center, they will be saving the environment as well as working off those extra end-of-semester calories.
UNT has installed the ReRev renewable energy system on 36 elliptical machines, turning the school into what the company calls “the largest human power plant in the world.”
The system converts energy from a typical workout into electricity and puts it back into the recreational center’s power grid, university spokesman Stuart Birdseye said.
There are 28 other health centers in the country using the ReRev technology, but UNT has more elliptical machines outfitted with it than any of them. Texas State University is No. 2 with 30 machines.
It sounds like this doesn’t generate a whole lot of electricity, but that’s all right. Taking advantage of what you’re already doing makes a lot of sense, and I expect we’ll see more installations like this over time.