In a European first, Sainsbury’s will install the invention at its new store in Gloucester, opening this Wednesday.

Energy will be captured every time a vehicle drives over “kinetic road plates” in the car park and then channelled back into the store.

The kinetic road plates are expected to produce 30 kWh of green energy every hour — more than enough energy to power the store’s checkouts. The system, pioneered for Sainsbury’s by Peter Hughes of Highway Energy Systems, does not affect the car or fuel efficiency, and drivers feel no disturbance as they drive over the plates.

Alison Austin, Sainsbury’s environment manager, said: “This is revolutionary. Not only are we the first to use such cutting-edge technology with our shoppers, but customers can now play a very active role in helping make their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost.

“We want to continue offering great value but we also want to make the weekly shop sustainable. Using amazing technology like this helps us reduce our use of carbon and makes Sainsbury’s a leading energy-efficient business.”

The kinetic road plates are one of a number of energy-saving measures at Sainsbury’s new store in Gloucester Quays, Gloucester. The store will harvest rainwater to flush the store’s toilets and solar thermal panels will heat up to 100% of the store’s hot water during the summer, and more than 90% of the construction waste was re-used or recycled.

David Sheehan, director of store development and construction at Sainsbury’s, said: “The new environmental features within the Gloucester Quays store mark a very exciting time in store development. We are able to use cutting-edge technology to improve our services and the store environment for our customers and colleagues, at the same time as ultimately reducing our carbon footprint across the UK.” The Guardian.

Labour’s Parmjit Dhanda is the latest MP to throw their hat into the ring for the job of Commons Speaker.

Mr Dhanda, one of a handful of Asian MPs in the Commons, says he was spurred into action by the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament.

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Mr Dhanda, who is understood to have turned down a chance to return to government, announced his move for the job in an e-mail to MPs, ahead of the 22 June election.

The former fire services minister and MP for Gloucester plans to stand on an agenda of reforming parliament, including holding debates outside the chamber in provincial towns and cities.

In his email, Mr Dhanda admitted that he was not “an obvious choice” but told MPs: “Until I see someone more likely to win who will fight for the causes I spell out here, I’ll be in this contest.”

He said the new speaker should act as “the interface between Parliament and modern Britain, championing the role of MPs and encouraging greater participation amongst the public”.

If he took the chair, that would include encouraging parties to speed up moves to make MPs representative of society as a whole – something that would take 100 years on present progress, he said.

“The Speaker must actively encourage political parties to make changes, through law, to catalyse these changes over one or two terms, not 100 years,” he said.

Mr Dhanda, who is not among MPs whose detailed expense claims have been exposed by The Daily Telegraph, said the scandal had highlighted a serious lack of parent-friendly facilities, such as crèches.

At the moment, MPs are left to “use their archaic allowances system to come up with alternative child care provision. Parliament not only stitches them up at the outset, it then hangs them out to dry”.

He told BBC News he wanted to “change the macho culture of ministerial life”. BBC.