How not to get Amped up.

I noticed a quick blurb leading up to the Super Bowl that 30 minutes of the pregame power had been provided, literally, by AMP Energy drink. People, on bikes (and presumably, on AMP) had generated the necessary power for 30 minutes of broadcast (and the power for their own infrastructure) and had uploaded it to the grid. As this pdf file notes, they uploaded 37.2 kWh of energy to the grid, as well as well as generating 207 kWh of energy for local consumption at their event. It’s a schtick, it’s hype. I get it.

But let’s do some quick math. I searched a few grocery sites and AMP seems to be no cheaper than about $2 a bottle for 110 Calories of carbs. When you burn it at ~25% efficiency, you’ll get about 110 kJ of energy from that (a calorie being 4.18 Joules, it’s a pretty convenient approximation to be 1 Calorie — 1000 calories — consumed will give you a kiloJoule of work). To give you a kWh of energy, that’s 3600 kJ, requiring ~32 bottles of the “energy drink.”

That’s $64 per kWh.

There’s a reason we started using animals for doing work, and machines when they became available, and laziness isn’t it. Oxen eating grass is free — no effort went into obtaining the energy (which is ultimately solar in its origin). Oil, natural gas, coal — all are solar energy stored in the ground, and generally yield more energy than it takes to obtain, refine and transport for use. The food we (and some animals) eat, however, has energy invested in it. Planting, cultivating, harvesting, packaging, distributing. And if it’s meat, which has to eat food that we’ve cultivated, forget it. You’re much better off burning the original food directly for the energy.