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Gym in California Converts Customers' Energy into Electricity

A California gym is harnessing human workout energy and turning it into electricity to power the facility.
A California gym is harnessing human workout energy and turning it into electricity to power the facility.
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Gym in California Converts Customers' Energy into Electricity

A California gym is harnessing human workout energy and turning it into electricity to power the facility.
A California gym is harnessing human workout energy and turning it into electricity to power the facility.

A California gym is harnessing human workout energy and turning it into electricity to power the facility.

Sacramento Eco Fitness has installed a non-motorized treadmill and several upright cycles made by Washington-based equipment manufacturer SportsArt.

The training machines are equipped with built-in inverters, similar to those found on solar panels and wind turbines turning the watts generated during a workout into electricity to power the gym. Any excess electricity is sent to a battery to keep the lights on during off-peak hours.

Owner Jose Antonio Avina, a former US marine who opened his gym in 2016, said: "We're harnessing the human power to produce clean energy."

A spin class on stationary cycles will produce anywhere between 1,000 and 2,500 watts, he explained, which is enough to power a refrigerator. But even a short workout can make a difference.

"On average, you at least produce 20 watts, you know, with a 20-minute workout," he added.

According to SportsArt, the gym's self-powered treadmill uses an electromagnetic and mechanical braking system to generate power. It uses no power at all and doesn't move until someone steps on it and pushes the belt around, either walking, running or using the toughest setting “sled pushing”, which has even the fittest gym members sweating in a few minutes.

Avina dsif many of his members joined the gym purely because they liked the eco cardio machines.

Nicole McCabe, a 24-year-old project manager for an environmental testing company, said reducing her carbon footprint is a vital part of her life.

"It's really important to me that everything is environmentally conscious, so combining fitness, something that's, of course, really good for you and the environment is probably one of the best ideas that anybody could ever come up with," she added.

For Avina, his self-powered gym is only the beginning.

"I would like gyms to be able to power an entire city block on their own, right? Produce enough energy to power their own needs within the facility and then have the excess energy to power a city block. That would be my goal," he stated.

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Gray Whale that Swam 20 Miles Up Washington State River is Found Dead

This photo provided by Cascadia Research Collective shows a gray whale swimming in the Willapa River near Willapa Bay, Wash., Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Cascadia Research Collective via AP)
This photo provided by Cascadia Research Collective shows a gray whale swimming in the Willapa River near Willapa Bay, Wash., Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Cascadia Research Collective via AP)
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Gray Whale that Swam 20 Miles Up Washington State River is Found Dead

This photo provided by Cascadia Research Collective shows a gray whale swimming in the Willapa River near Willapa Bay, Wash., Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Cascadia Research Collective via AP)
This photo provided by Cascadia Research Collective shows a gray whale swimming in the Willapa River near Willapa Bay, Wash., Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Cascadia Research Collective via AP)

A juvenile gray whale that amazed Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river was found dead, and an official with a marine mammal research group suspects hunger may have driven the whale to new hunting grounds as the species' population declines.

The whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay. A number of gray whales are currently in the bay on their 5,000-mile (8,000-kilometer) spring migration from birthing grounds in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding grounds in Alaska.

The larger issue that the population of gray whales in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean has faced since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska’s coast, John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

“Gray whales are facing a major crisis and the heart of it does seem to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic,” he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event for eastern gray whales — meaning those in the eastern Pacific — from late 2018 to late 2023. It involved 690 gray whale strandings during that time, stretching from Alaska to Mexico.

NOAA Fisheries investigators concluded the preliminary cause was “localized ecosystem changes in the whales’ sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increased mortality.”

Officials believed the population was rebounding, but the most recent count from 2025 instead showed a continuing decline. The federal agency estimated there were about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest count since the 1970s.

“A lot of these gray whales are looking very emaciated, very thin,” Calambokidis said.

Their migration north is typically the most challenging period for gray whales, the longest they’ve gone without eating, forcing the animals to use up their nutritional reserves.

“When that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed,” Calambokidis said. "That’s the most likely context for this whale.”

Researchers will attempt to examine the whale, possibly as soon as Monday.

It entered the north fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday, via a bay about 185 miles (298 kilometers) southwest of Seattle. Residents gathered on bridges along the river just to catch glimpses of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and video of it expelling air through its blowhole.

While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and didn’t appear to have any injuries, the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective said in a Facebook post.

The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers attempted to find it Friday, the animal had traveled further upriver into waters that were unnavigable by boat, Calambokidis said.

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Chilean Zoo Stages Easter Egg Hunt with Treats for the Animals

A meerkat inspects a basket with Easter egg-themed treats in the Buinzoo in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A meerkat inspects a basket with Easter egg-themed treats in the Buinzoo in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
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Chilean Zoo Stages Easter Egg Hunt with Treats for the Animals

A meerkat inspects a basket with Easter egg-themed treats in the Buinzoo in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A meerkat inspects a basket with Easter egg-themed treats in the Buinzoo in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Step aside, children — this Easter egg hunt is for zoo animals only.

At the largest private zoo in Chile, several of its animal residents — meerkats, monkeys, lemurs and others — searched on Sunday for their food packaged as Easter egg-themed treats.

The “egg hunt” is an annual event at Bioparque Buinzoo in the country’s capital, Santiago, meant to both entertain visitors and stimulate natural food-hunting behavior in various species.

The Associated Press said that zookeepers placed small bags decorated like Easter eggs but packed with meat in the enclosures of small felines, such as caracals, who leapt up tree branches to get their snacks.

A meerkat had a basket with eggs placed in between some rocks in its enclosure. Monkeys and lemurs were treated to fruits hidden in brown paper bags decorated with bunny years.

Ignacio Idalsoaga, the zoo's director, said that “in nature, these animals spend much of their life looking for food” so the zoo wanted to recreate that behavior.

The treats and snacks were “not chocolate eggs,” he added reassuringly but foods the animals would eat in their natural habitat.

The annual even has been held for the past 16 years, Idalsoaga said. This year, sheep also had to forage for their food pellets inside a colorful sphere with holes in it.

“Our creative team has been very imaginative this year” Idalsoaga said.

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Toddler Injured by Wolf in the US after Crawling Under Zoo's Exterior Metal Fence

A captive wolf is seen in the Alpha wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, October 17, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE)/ File Photo
A captive wolf is seen in the Alpha wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, October 17, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE)/ File Photo
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Toddler Injured by Wolf in the US after Crawling Under Zoo's Exterior Metal Fence

A captive wolf is seen in the Alpha wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, October 17, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE)/ File Photo
A captive wolf is seen in the Alpha wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, October 17, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE)/ File Photo

A toddler was lightly injured by a wolf at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after he crawled under a fence and stuck his hand into the animal’s enclosure, officials at the zoo confirmed Sunday.

According to The Associated Press, the child was never inside the wolf habitat at the ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park, which is part of the Hersheypark theme park, and the officials characterized the injuries as minor without elaborating.

After the “unsupervised” child reached the metal enclosure around the wolf habitat on Saturday morning and put his hand through, a wolf approached “and made contact with the child’s hand,” according to a statement from the zoo.

“This type of response is consistent with natural animal behavior, and was not a sign of aggression,” the zoo said in a statement. “Our habitats are designed with multiple layers of protection, and clear signage and barriers are in place to help ensure safe viewing. Guests are expected to remain within designated areas and closely supervise children at all times.”

The zoo is part of the entertainment complex in Hershey, Pennsylvania, featuring a chocolate-themed amusement park. The zoo's website says it has three gray wolves.

Hersheypark made headlines last summer when a lost boy wandering a monorail line above a crowd was rescued by a park visitor who climbed onto a building and jumped onto the rails. The child was unharmed and reunited with his family.