Andrew Fleming-Brown runs SWG3, an arts complicated in Glasgow, Scotland that hosts big dance events in a collection of warehouses.

In 2019 he had an aha second.

What if they may harness the human power expended by all these sweaty our bodies in its warehouses to construct a sustainable enterprise?

“We realized that our viewers could possibly be our supply of power,” he informed The Guardian.

Brown has teamed up with geothermal firm TownRock Power to make his dream come true. Earlier this month, the membership opened to 1,250 clubgoers squirming to EDM beats. On the identical time, a specifically designed system channeled warmth from their our bodies 500 ft underground right into a layer of bedrock that acts like a thermal battery.

The bedrock shops the warmth till it’s wanted to warmth elements of the venue.

The Bodyheat system at SWG3 is put in in two of the complicated’s largest operate rooms – Galvanizers and TV Studio. On common, the expertise reduces SWG3’s annual carbon footprint to round 70 tons, saving three gasoline boilers. At full load, SWG3 might generate 800 kilowatt hours of warmth.

However kinetic programs like this do not come low-cost. Brown informed the New York Occasions he spent round $500,000. Fortunately he obtained a grant from Scotland’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Program and financial institution loans at a low rate of interest (earlier than the present financial downturn) to pay for it.

The success of SWG3 has impressed Brown and TownRock Power to take the Bodyheat system to different places. Based on the Occasions, they’ve their eyes on a sequence of UK gyms the place inflated our bodies are downright ripe for harnessing power.