This isn't even an efficient way of doing things since muscles are less efficient than electric motors. Just stick a solar panel array on your factory and be done with it.
> This isn't even an efficient way of doing things since muscles are less efficient than electric motors.
Even more so if you factor in the entire human biological system. Humans are pretty shit at converting food to mechanical energy, to say nothing of considering the entire chain from sunlight on. And our average power output is nothing worth speaking about either.
A pedal-powered work bench of some sort (where the pedalling is an ancillary activity to the primary work e.g. pottery wheel or loom or whatever) can make sense, the mechanical energy requirement are limited and most of the work is relevant to human skills. But for primary power production it makes limited sense, at least in developed countries.
> Just stick a solar panel array on your factory and be done with it.
For factories sure but there is a huge advantage to pedal-powered prime movers: they're very easy to slap together and maintain. Solar panels are not always easy to have in low-infrastructure / developing country environments, slapping belts and rods onto a bicycle frame is much more accessible.
Even more so if you factor in the entire human biological system. Humans are pretty shit at converting food to mechanical energy, to say nothing of considering the entire chain from sunlight on. And our average power output is nothing worth speaking about either.
A pedal-powered work bench of some sort (where the pedalling is an ancillary activity to the primary work e.g. pottery wheel or loom or whatever) can make sense, the mechanical energy requirement are limited and most of the work is relevant to human skills. But for primary power production it makes limited sense, at least in developed countries.
> Just stick a solar panel array on your factory and be done with it.
For factories sure but there is a huge advantage to pedal-powered prime movers: they're very easy to slap together and maintain. Solar panels are not always easy to have in low-infrastructure / developing country environments, slapping belts and rods onto a bicycle frame is much more accessible.