via inhabitat:

A new wind technology using wind belts rather than rotating turbines promises exciting prospects for aesthetic installations. I could see the adaptation of this idea for a LAGI installation. Modules of Humdinger energy producing armatures as the medium for a new public art and sculptural form!

Instead of using conventional geared, rotating airfoils to pull energy from the wind, the Windbelt(tm) relies on an aerodynamic phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter (’flutter’). While the the phenomenon is a well-known destructive force (e.g. a cause of bridge failure), researchers at Humdinger have discovered that it can also be a useful and powerful mechanism for catching the wind at scales and costs beyond the reach of turbines.

Sketch examples of the technology employed on a large scale can be found on Humdinger’s website.

The 10MW tower is designed to be as much an aesthetic renewable energy power plant as it is a habitable skyscraper. The tower creates energy through the three systems—a 5MW horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), a 3MW concentrated solar power armature (CSP) and a 2MW solar updraft tower (SU). By producing more than 10 times the amount of energy than its own demand load it is able to contribute significantly to the power load demand of the surrounding neighborhood.

The Al Quoz neighborhood in Dubai is an eclectic mix of light industrial factories, car dealerships, shopping outlets, art galleries, and single family residences. All of these buildings set a fairly common roof datum of 3-4 stories or approximately 12 meters. The podium of the 10MW Tower is designed to fit into this fabric with storefronts on the sidewalk on the East, South, and West sides. The North side is given over to a monumental tower entrance along Sheikh Zayed Road. The tower’s 130,000m2 (GFA) on fifty stories could contain offices and/or residences while the 3-story podium will be given over to restaurants and retail establishments.

The 10 megawatt measurement is the capacity of the tower. Based on local meteorological data the 3MW CSP and 2MW SU will operate for 2,400 hours per year. The 5MW HAWT would be operational for approximately 1,600 hours per year and much of that operation will be during the night when the other two systems are inoperable. The yearly output then of the building will be approximately 20,000MWh. The estimated embodied energy in the structure, the finishes and the construction of the 130,000m2 (GFA) building is estimated at 360,000MWh and the tower will neutralize its entire existence impact in less than 20 years through the clean energy it will generate—the first skyscraper ever to do so.

The shape of the South facade of the tower is derived from the geometry that provides each of the 1,600 4m2 heliostatic mirrors with an unobstructed reflection path to the central collector. Inside the central collector, molten salt is heated by the mirrors to 500°C to generate steam.

While the mirrors also act as shading devices to the South facade, they are not continuous and are place far enough apart so that they can turn freely as they track the sun. The solar energy that passes between them to strike the surface of the double curtain wall heats the interstitial space as in a greenhouse. In this 750mm wide air space, the heated air will make its way to the chimney outlet at the top of the 600m tall tower spire where the ambient air temperature is low enough to bring about a significant wind speed in the chimney—enough to turn the blades on the 2MW capacity turbine.

Both the solar updraft and concentrated solar power technologies have been proven at the scales incorporated into the 10MW tower, though the application on the tower sees them working in a vertical orientation rather than their typical horizontal position along the ground. The 5MW horizontal axis wind turbine is no different than the ubiquitous turbines with 80m diameter spans typically seen on their own support structures.

By placing the 10MW Tower in what is perhaps the only empty block of its size in the Al Quoz neighborhood, the clear access to sunlight on all sides is guaranteed. The site is oriented with the South side facing the low-lying neighborhood and the North side facing the primary transportation corridor for the city of Dubai—SZR and the Dubai Metro. The simple international style modern storefront architecture of the podium matches the adjacent 3-story commercial architecture along Sheikh Zayed Road.

The site is important from a conceptual view as well. Currently the Al Quoz neighborhood is an eclectic mix of utilitarian and vernacular aesthetics. Nothing in this part of town is what could be considered “high-end”, although there are some very trendy furniture stores nestled into the SZR commercial storefronts (e.g. Bo Concept) as well as a few exotic car dealerships. The bold placement of such an object/destination building in this location—nestled across from manufacturing buildings and other urban viscera—creates a stimulating discourse of duality. It is not in conflict with its surroundings but rather establishes a hierarchical relationship with them much in the same way as the old villa in Naguib Mahfouz’s The Children of Gebelawi acts as an almost magical emblem of protection and wonderment.

The roof of the podium is planted as a garden and provides a beautiful respite for those who visit, work or live in the tower. The irrigation for the podium garden comes from the condensate of the building’s air handling units.

The sun’s path across the sky and the geometry of the angle of incidence on the mirrors locations both work together to create the form of the South façade.

In the North-South section, the resultant shape is a parabola which affords a clear path of travel for the beams of light towards the collector. The 1,600 parabolic mirrors track the sun and provide an unobstructed reflection from sunrise to sunset.

The mirrors serve as shading devices to the facade which is further protected from solar heat gain by the double curtain wall. This wall creates a greenhouse effect which continuously drafts upward in a massive chimney effect, passively cooling the building and running a 2MW wind turbine.

The total 10MW combined electricity output of the tower is the equivalent required to power 5,000 households.

This is a great performance concept and a very interesting and beautiful intersecting of art and technology.

Performances with Electroacoustic Clothes (pdf link)

Benoît Maubrey is the director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based art group that build and perform with electronic clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes and dresses (equipped with amplifiers and loudspeakers and solar cells) that make sounds by interacting thematically and acoustically with their environment. For example the SOLAR BALLERINAS use—among other electronic instruments—light sensors that enable them to produce sounds through the interaction of their movements and the surrounding light (PEEPER choreography). Via movement sensors they can also trigger electronic sounds that are subsequently choreographed—or “orchestrated”—into musical compositions as an “audio ballet ” (YAMAHA choreography). A variety of other electronic instruments (mini-computers, samplers, contact microphones, cassette and MP3 players, and radio receivers) allow them to work with the sounds, surfaces, and topographies of the space around them in a variety of solo or group choreographies.

For videos, pdf catalogs, photos and texts of performances and installations, click here.

also
Audio Gruppe on youtube: SOLAR BALLERINA

We at the Land Art Generator Initiative are big fans of John King’s idea for the old span of the Bay Bridge. His opinion article in yesterday’s SF Chronicle lays out scenarios for wind turbines and PV panels on the old span as a monument to the 21st century. Perhaps we should have a design competition? John King writes:

Imagine, for instance, that experimental wind turbines dotted the structure, corkscrews whirling in the stiff afternoon wind. Or a thin-sliced row of photovoltaic solar panels stretched across the top of the span, harvesting the sun on all but the foggiest days.

None of this is in the works, of course: The $6.3 billion budget for the new eastern span includes $240 million to remove the 1.9-mile structure that exists. Some pieces will be preserved as high-tonnage keepsakes. Most will probably end up on a slow boat to China, with scrap metal yards as the final destination.

Goumbook has launched officially today!
Change from a consumer into a congoumer!

Goumbook is the place to go to source every sort of eco-friendly product in the Middle East.

Credit: Jeffrey Grossman et al.: In these computer simulated images of 3-D solar panels the one on the left has 64 flat, triangular, double-sided panels, the one on the right is a simplified version.

This is an interesting article from MSNBC and Tech News Daily about how biomimicry can show how to capture the most solar energy per unit area. By creating the right folded shape, residual light that reflects unused from the first surface is captured by secondary surfaces. MIT has created the prefect fold combinations by running “genetic algorithm” on simple shapes. These complex clusters could provide nearly three times the output energy of a flat panel given the same efficiencies of the panel material.

Professor Harry Atwater from California Institute of Technology has announced a new process for manufacturing thin flexible sheets of solar power material with 100 times less silicone per KW for the same surface area. Published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Materials and posted to VOA News.

Caltech/Michael Kelzenberg

In terms of sustainability and in terms of application this is a great advancement. We are always interested in seeing new ways to create ‘plastic’ energy-generating surfaces that can be used in sculptural applications.

A beautifully written piece from over the weekend in the Guardian. link

The artist Antony Gormley asks the question that all artists should be asking themselves. What now is the purpose of art in our contemporary world? What can the artist do to remain relevant in a post-everything world where the fundamental issue of the sustainability of our planet is so powerful as to seemingly derogate more esoteric concerns of transcendental beauty? And yet it is these more esoteric and sublime notions that tie us so firmly to the natural world and to our human nature and that may hold the key to an escape from our lamentable path towards global calamity.

It is through art that we communicate what it feels like to be alive. When you ask “what is the point of art?” you could reformulate the question to “what is the point of human beings?” [...] What I am asking for is a reassessment of what art is and how it works. I am questioning the linear trajectory of art history as part of western development, recognising that all art exists in the sense of a continuous present. [...] How do I justify the work and life of my studio, with its 10,000 square feet of heated space and my 17 assistants?

We really like this post from the Infrastructurist blog: