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It's is a pretty typical scene in a physical fitness center. There are a number of people at work on the 20 or so elliptical machines. But this physical fitness center at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts near the border with New York is different.

Stephanie Boyd, Director of Environmental Initiative at Williams College, said, "What we're doing here is we've retrofitted our elliptical trainers, about 20 of them, with a gadget that converts the energy from the people exercising into direct current."

As in electrical current.

Boyd said, "Which is then sent to an inverter box and converted into AC (alternating) current that we can use in the building for electricity."

In other words, Boyd said, "We're using human energy to power up things in our athletic center."

Things like the television monitors that people are watching while they exercise.

Reaction seems pretty positive.

"It's a great idea," said one woman. "I hope more machines will be able to do that."

"The more we can do to make energy and being able to work out and do that is a wonderful thing," said another woman.

"I think it's a great idea. You might as well put that energy to good use, whatever we're doing out there," said a man at the gym.

But don't get the idea elliptical power is going to take the fitness center off the grid.

Boyd said, "For example, it would take three people working fairly hard on these machines to generate enough electricity to run the television that they're watching."

And there's another aspect to this project.

Boyd said, "But we think most importantly, it's a way to help us think about energy and how we use energy and how much energy you create."

Depending on use and how intense the workouts are, the payback for the $13,000 investment is between 7 to 10 years. The college is also looking into adding other exercise equipment into the mix.