Football pitch in Brazil harnesses energy of players to power lights

The pitch has been set up in Rio

(SHELL)

Kids streaking back and forth on a Brazilian football field in scorching tropical heat are producing something more than buckets of sweat.

Billed as Brazil's first player-powered soccer pitch, a field inaugurated Wednesday in a Rio de Janeiro slum harnesses the kinetic energy of players' movements to provide nighttime illumination.

Under the project, sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, around 200 energy-capturing tiles were installed the width and breadth of the field and covered by a layer of AstroTurf. Working in conjunction with solar panels also installed around the field, the player-powered tiles feed electricity to a system of floodlights overhead.