Green Revolution (UPDATED)

They're powering their health clubs in London using power converters strapped to stationary bikes. This is a pretty cool idea, and has a lot of potential.
If a kWh of electricity costs $0.10, then a neat way for a truly beneficent health club to encourage healthy patrons would be to offset your monthly membership by how much energy you "donate" to the health club's power supply.

Let's say I ride at 180W, for 2 hours a day, 20 days a month. Thats 2X20X180 = 7.2 kWh of power. At that rate, I could see a $0.72 savings on my monthly gym bill. Small change, I agree. But if the gym had 20 bikes going year round (not to mention the higher power output during spin classes and other more intense riding periods) you could easily see a savings of 3,600 kWh, or roughly the power required to light 72 homes for a month.

There are roughly 35,000 gyms in America. If suddenly they were filled with bicyclists riding for green change, its not hard to believe that a significant carbon impact could be made. Other equipment, too, like rowing machines and stair climbing machines, could also be used to harness power.

It's an appealing concept. The harder you exercise, the more money you save, and the more positive environmental impact you make.

Of course, the article gets ahead of itself by calling the idea the brainchild of Jay Whelan. Anyone who has watched SportsCenter on ESPN in the last 3 years has seen the commercial where ESPN keeps Lance Armstrong in the basement of the ESPN building, powering the entire building with his bicycle. <-updated