Designing Kinetic Dance Floors for Coldplay's World Tour | S5 E6
Michel Smit, CEO of Energy Floors in the Netherlands, joins Earth Care for episode 6 of the Sustainability in the Live Music Industry Series.
Energy Floors aims to create awareness about renewable energy in a fun and approachable way. The company designs and builds floors that generate energy, are smart, interactive and make sustainability visible.They have developed a kinetic dance floor, kinetic walkway, a solar walkway and a kinetic photo-booth.
Interacting with their technology communicates that anyone can make a difference. Energy floors believes that all technology is available to create a sustainable world and it's now up to us to realize and embrace these technologies in our every day lives.
Their kinetic floors have brought sustainability to events around the globe including the FIA Formula E World Championship in London, Ski Resorts, Nightclubs, Coldplay's album launch in London and Berlin and Coldplay’s Music of Spheres tour!
In this episode, Michel discusses the concept of kinetic energy and how it can be harnessed to generate electricity. He explains how the idea for Energy Floors was born out of a desire to make nightclubs and festivals more sustainable. Michel also shares his experience working with Coldplay on their Music of Spheres tour and how the kinetic Energy Floors were integrated into the concert experience. Additionally, we learn about the logistics of building and transporting the Energy Floors and the impact they have on reducing the tour's carbon footprint. Michel emphasizes the importance of making renewable energy fun and engaging for people.
Episode Transcription:
Sarah Christie
Michel Smit, CEO over at Energy Floors, I'm truly so grateful to have you join Earth Care and be a part of the Sustainability in the Live Music Industry series because what you've created really embodies the joy and community that live music inherently creates. So thank you so much for joining. How are you doing today?
Michel
I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for approaching us. Great to be part of it.
Sarah Christie
Now, for those of us who haven't taken a science class since high school, Can you give us a quick refresher on what is kinetic energy? How does it work?
Michel
Kinetic energy means the energy that's available in the movement of a person or a vehicle or whatever the mass is moving that represents energy. And what we do is we capture the energy of people dancing, jumping or walking and convert it into usable electricity. So we always say the harder people party, the better it is for the world.
Sarah Christie
I love that I can get on board with that, absolutely. So how did you initially come up with this idea for Energy Floors?
Michel
Well, the idea is 15 years old and we started looking at a group of young people from Rotterdam at a nightclub and a festival and innovative ways how to make that more sustainable. Because as you know nightlife and festivals are very , There's a lot of consuming and you really don't think about the impact you're making on the environment and our goal was how can we create a sustainable nightclub or a sustainable festival but still in a way that people enjoy it and then you start looking at available sources of energy and how can we use that and it's very clear that if you have a full nightclub it's buzzing of energy that comes from the dance floor. So it was a very logical step to see how can we convert the energy that's available on the dance floor into usable electricity.
Sarah Christie
What's so encouraging about this is I think climate action can feel very overwhelming for a lot of people, but this doesn't interrupt your daily life in any way. It just works in unison in concert with your what you're doing, you know, and that is so hopeful. Now, the way I stumbled across Energy Floors over here in Canada was I was researching Coldplay's Music of Spheres tour, which you play a major role in. So how did you start working with Coldplay on that tour?
Michel
It's amazing the strength of a good idea. So ever since the beginning that we started communicating that we were working on an energy generating dance floor We already got requests from all over the world saying, wow, that's great. And how could we put it in our club? How can we put it in our tour? And so and one day we just got an email from like a technical company that says, wow, we're preparing a tour for a band and has to be sustainable and we want public interaction. And then pretty soon it became clear that this was the new world tour of Coldplay. And then we worked together with the designers of the tour to see how can we best integrate the floor in which parts. And of course the band hearing about the idea said we want the whole floor and we want the whole stadium filled up and even our stages around the stadium. And then of course we had to make it more realistic and say, okay, this is what we can deliver. This is costs are involved. So then we ended up by making, yeah, like being part of the energy zone within the concert. And that's, yeah, took a year and a half of preparation and now it's there for touring.
Sarah Christie
So how does that work building this floor that's also going to be going from stadium to stadium? What was that process like for you and the team?
Michel
Usually you can see the background here. You see our kinetic modules there. I made them light up so you can see them better. So it's a modular system. So if we do installations for, then we do it tile by tile because we have the time to put it there and to take it out. But at a concert, especially with the size and the scale of Coldplay, everything is about logistics.
Everything is about how quickly can we get it into a venue and how quickly can we get it out. So we had to adjust, let's say, our basic kinetic tile into a structure that's really efficient for logistics. And for us, that was a new new application. So we work together with stage designers, logistics company to make it into like a fully efficient system.
Sarah Christie
You said you had to dial it back. Now, for those of us who haven't been able to attend the tour, you know, it hasn't made its way to Toronto yet, hopefully one day, but how many people can use the dance floor at once?
Michel
I think now we've made six floors for them, so six circular floors, and in each concert they use two. And that will hold maybe a hundred people at the same time, but what they do, they take turns. So they say, okay, now is the next version of the dance party, kinetic dance party, and then they invite new people on the floor. So a lot of people can give their energy, especially before the concert starts. So it's like a pre -program.
Sarah Christie
Wow.
How special is that? That's so fun.
Michel
And that, yeah, it's super cool. I've seen it work. I've been to a couple of concerts and I've been to the launch in Costa Rica and then in Amsterdam when they were here last year. And that's great. It's especially great when the band says at a certain moment that they thank the people for the energy created on the energy floor. It was like a really hooray moment for us.
Sarah Christie
Well, speaking of, I did find this quote that says, it was from Chris Martin on stage saying, when I say I need you to jump, I literally need you to jump up and down because if you don't, the lights will go out. Now, how much truth is in that? So when people are dancing on these floors, how is that power then being used to support the tour?
Michel
Yeah, we were always looking for an energy balance. So the amount of energy that's available in the crowd, the amount of space that we have, the amount of budget there is, and what can we do with this energy. And they ended up creating an energy zone. So the energy zone has two kinetic dance floors and a row of bicycles that generate energy. And during one concert, all that energy is translated into portable batteries. And then after that concert, it's taken to the next evening. And with that energy, they power what they call the C stage. So it's a small stage and all the lights and the sound is powered from the energy coming from this kinetic energy.
Sarah Christie
Wow, so the fans are basically helping the tour sustain itself by, you know, helping it keep going. That's really cool.
Michel
Yeah, but this is like a pilot installation showing the world what you could do eventually if you, we've made calculations that if you put a tile on every available square meter in the arena, then you could power the whole concert if everybody kept jumping during the whole concert. But that's theoretically, of course, because...There's a lot of songs where people just stand still and just wiggle a little bit instead of full on party power.
Sarah Christie
Right. Now, this was really interesting to read about as well, the gamification aspect of all of the kinetic dance floors, how fans can go and see their impact. How does that work?
Michel
Yeah, we have two types of impact. One is we create sustainable energy where usually there is no energy. So coming from the floor, coming from the people. So this is an amount of energy that you could use. But the biggest impact is the impact we have on the awareness of the people, engaging them in the sustainability goals. Saying okay now you are part of the energy production of the floor and the people love it if they can contribute to something that they like and if they can work together to create even more that's, they start to really really engage and we also show them on a screen with data saying well you have been producing this amount of energy and for I think 95 percent of the people nobody knows what is a joule what is a kilowatt hour so they just say I'm producing energy, that's great. And then if we want to encourage them, then you make it into a battle. I'll say, okay, but you are producing this amount of energy and your neighbour's producing this. So, then you get a competition and whoever wins is the winner. Everybody's happy. That's how it, everybody loves a game. Yeah.
Sarah Christie
That's fun. Everybody loves a good game. Dancing, games, I feel like you figured it all out. You've tapped into every part of what drives us. Now, is there data available yet on what kind of carbon footprint this has reduced using the kinetic dance floors, the Energy Floors on the tour?
Michel
Yes, yes, at the end of every leg we communicate all the data to Coldplay and they integrate it into their whole report. I think even MIT was part of their yearly report and there they show all the implementations they've done and the feedback. So we have the individual feedback from the floors but we...It's owned by Coldplay. We deliver it to them and they incorporate it in their report.
Sarah Christie
Now, what do you wish because again, for some of us, this is a brand new, we're relearning what kinetic energy is. What do you wish as we move forward more people understood about renewable energy? Because this is a very big topic of conversation. There are tax credits for it. There are tax incentives for it when you're refurbishing your home and we just see these words all the time, but I don't know that it's a common piece of conversation for everyone.
Michel
No, no, it's yeah, I'm a little bit in a bubble, of course, because I hear all day and in Holland, in the Netherlands, it's been a big topic, sustainability and wherever we go with the floor, we're always invited by an organization whose topic is promoting renewable energy. More of what we try to do is to make more and more people aware how easy it is and how fun it is to be engaged in the production or working with renewable energy. And that's, I think that's what our special angle is. We say we're trying to make it fun and tangible instead of it being such a big subject that everybody feels numb and say, yeah, but what can I do about it? And why should I do something about it? And we are saying, well, just do it because it's fun and it makes a better world at the same time. So, and I think we have to all find solutions that are close to you and give your life an added value. And I think it's up to the producers of sustainable products like we are to make cool sustainable products so that people want to use it.
Sarah Christie
Yep, you would be hard-pressed to find a negative to getting out there and moving and dancing and getting out there with your friends at a concert. So, it was such a pleasure to have you on Earth Care and to learn more about Energy Floors.
Michel
Well, it was great, it was great talking to you and I hope it reaches a lot of people and that we can create more and more energy all over the world.
Sarah Christie
Yes, one day I hope to be dancing on your floors. Absolutely.
Michel
Yeah, let's dance together.
FINISHED.
