What if we could produce electricity simply by walking across a wooden floor?

It's theoretically possible to produce electricity by subjecting wood to mechanical stress, such as by walking on it. — AFP Relaxnews

Researchers in Switzerland are working on a new technology enabling them to produce as much electricity as possible from mechanical stress applied to wood. The idea is to make the material more malleable, more spongy, in order to boost its natural piezoelectric properties. When applied to a wooden floor, this technology could be used to produce electricity simply by walking around the home.

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and ETA Zurich have developed a system destined to produce electricity from renewable sources, more precisely, from wood, according to a paper published in Science Advances.

Due to its piezoelectric properties, wood could, theoretically, allow the direct conversion of mechanical energy into electricity. However, this property hasn't previously been fully exploited.