The Football that Generates Energy

Imagine being able to play football and capture the energy generated when kicking the ball at the same time. This is exactly what Uncharted Play, a for-profit social enterprise in the United States, has designed. An electricity generating football, known as the Soccket, turns the energy from a kick-about into usable power.

Co-founders of Uncharted Play, Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman first came up with the idea of developing the energy harnessing football in 2008. After receiving their final funding from a Kickstarter campaign in March 2013, they are now ready to share it with the world.

According to the World Bank Institute, 20 per cent of the world’s populations are without reliable access to electricity. Almost all of these 1.4 billion people are living in the developing world. “The Soccket is one way to fight energy poverty and encourage people to play at the same time,” says Victor Angel, Vice President for Product Development at Uncharted Play. Angel and his team are working together with NGOs in developing countries like Nigeria, Brazil and South Africa, and hope to provide disadvantaged communities with both power and a football to play with.

Simon Trace, CEO at the sustainable development corporation, Practical Action thinks the Soccket is a fun and interesting piece of technology. “Although it probably won’t provide a huge amount of energy for very many people, the idea of bringing attention to the energy crisis through things like the Soccket is excellent,” he says.

How does it work?

Embedded in the centre of the ball is a gyroscopic mechanism similar to a swinging pendulum. As the Soccket is in motion, the moving weight is constantly being pulled down by gravity. This then generates kinetic energy, which is converted into electrical energy and stored inside the ball. This energy can later be accessed through an external plug as a power source. Apart from the energy harnessing mechanism inside the ball, the internal shell is made up of high-density foam known as Polyurethane, which makes it airless, thereby preventing it from going flat. The stored energy can power an LED lamp for up to three hours after 30 minutes of play, and has enough power to charge a phone or battery.

Over the past two years the team at Uncharted Play have gone through various steps to improve the ball. “We shrunk the internal mechanism to be the size of a fist,” says Angel. “One of the most challenging components was to find an ideal weight and density of the external shell as it needs to be as light as a regular soccer ball, but at the same time deflation proof, durable and water resistant.” Now, the Soccket only weighs about 30 grams more than an average football.

In the form of a “buy one-give one” model, the Soccket will be sold in western markets (for around £65 including the LED lamp). The profits will then be used to distribute the balls at little or no cost in developing countries like Mexico and Nigeria through development organizations such as Children International. Apart from its power-generating properties, the Soccket is also being used in educational programmes. NGOs such as InstitutoPromundo in Brazil use the ball to explain concepts of energy conservation to communities in urban shantytowns known as favelas.

The team at Uncharted Play is working on creating more innovative technologies in the near future. “We are currently developing portable flashlights which will allow people to share the power of one Soccket.” They are also looking into making it more sustainable by using biodegradable materials to make the external shell of the ball.