PORTLAND, Ore. -- You've always been able to burn energy at the gym.

Now, you can create it too.

The Green Microgym, in the Alberta arts district of northeast Portland, opens this week and aims to turn human energy into electricity.

Adam Boesel, a personal trainer and the owner of the gym, rigged up spin bikes with weedwacker motors and truck alternators in hopes of creating the first human-powered gym in the United States.

The eco-gym, which has treadmills equipped with energy efficient motors, will use a combination of solar and human power.

"We're just harnessing that extra energy that they put out anyway," Boesel said. "For people, that's a no-brainer. They say it's there, you might as well capture it."

The concept of energy harvesting takes energy from one source and uses it to power something else.

Boesel says the gym's Team Dynamo and Spin Bikes are able to generate up to 750 watts per hour. He's also working on ways to capture excess energy from elliptical trainers.

"It's just going to move the human powered renewable energy technology to the next level," Boesel said.

But can you really run a 2,800 square-foot gym solely on human power?

"We're going for 100 percent," Boesel said. "I think at the beginning, we may be 20 to 25 percent."

While it could be the first human-powered gym in the United States, it won't be the first in the world. Fitness buffs in Hong Kong already power lights and batteries by the power in their abs, thighs and calves.

The Green Microgym is located at Northeast 13th Avenue and Alberta Street. For more information, visit the gym's Web site or MySpace page.

Gym Hopes To Turn Human Energy Into Electricity