save the world by clubbing
as a follow-up to my post on the opening of greenhouse in soho last week, i wanted to give a full-fledged shoutout to the piezoelectric dance floor at club surya in london. yes, it sounds like something out of an episode of get smart or batman (the original one with adam west), but i am kicking myself for not thinking of this sooner! the brainchild of club4climate (you must, if you do nothing else of importance today, check out this website because it will blow you away) founder andrew charalambous, a.k.a. “dr. earth,” the revolutionary flooring uses quartz crystals and ceramics to transform clubbers’ dancing into electricity.
dr. earth offers free entry to any clubber that can prove he/she walked or used a bicycle to get to his clubs, although i’m not really sure how - perhaps a heartrate reading? surya also has its own wind turbine and solar energy system with plans to surplus power to local citizens.
the non-evil dr. is also planning to open a club4climate party island where eco-clubbers can gather to “save the world lying down and sipping cocktails next to the pool.” it will undoubtedly be expensive to attend a bash there, but i can’t wait until 2010, the slated opening date, to see what eco-innovations the island will reveal.
“unless we stop preaching to people and use an inclusive philosophy we’re never going to create the revolution to combat climate change,” said charalambous to reuters.
“it’s also about creating avenues of thought. imagine what you could achieve if big corporations adopted this kind of initiative.”
|
|
|
|
|
 |
can we power new york city on clean energy?
last thursday, the new york academy of sciences hosted a panel discussion picking the brains of three experts to try to answer the question “can new york city transition to 100% clean energy in 10 years?”
the symposium was held at 7 world trade center, a building that receives much less publicity and credit than it deserves. for example, did you know that when the it was re-built following 9/11, it was nyc’s first green office tower? close to 30% of the structural steel used in the building is recycled and rainwater is collected and used for irrigation of the surrounding park and to cool the building. another fascinating feature is the elevator system which is integrated with the lobby turnstile and card reader system that identifies the floor on which a person works as he/she enters and can automatically call the elevator for that floor (source: wikipedia).
sick.
thanks for the pic www.jets.org.
but let’s get down to business. sanjoy banerjee, distinguished professor and director of the institute for sustainable energy technologies at ccny was the first to present. he was kind enough to send me his slides. let’s go through some of them and what they mean. professor banerjee, if you are reading this, please correct or clarify what i’ve written as you see fit.
first, professor banerjee illustrated where the main power plants in nyc are.
 |
then, he showed us what our daily and annual energy consumption look like.
 |
these charts are pretty common-sensical. our power demand goes down at night when we go to sleep and our heating fuel demand goes down in the summer when it is hot.
 |
the following chart, to me, was by far the most interesting. it illustrates how much photovoltaic (or solar energy) power can be generated throughout the day vs. the amount of electricity we consume. logically, pv generation spikes around noon because that is when we receive the most sunlight. the most important thing that this charts shows is that the sun provides us with more than enough energy during the day to power us through the night, and professor banerjee dispelled the myth that we either do not have the technology to place solar panels on our rooftops or that it would be too expensive. “the achilles heel of solar power,” he explained, “is storage.” how do we store the energy that we collect from the sun during the day so that we can use it to watch tv, charge our cell phone and light our lamps at night?
 |
now, professor banerjee had a very nice slide about different types of batteries, but as a normal, less than super-smart person, i couldn’t really distinguish it from a map of brooklyn. what was very clear to me, however, was his identification of metal-air batteries as the main contender because they, unlike lithium-ion batteries, are cheap(er). the issue with metal-air batteries is that dendrites (like the ones in the slide below) can form, growing and growing until they completely clog the battery. i had to leave the room for a moment to go to the restroom, but i believe what professor banerjee was saying was that if we can somehow come up with a way to prevent dendrites from forming, we can use metal-air batteries to efficiently and inexpensively address the storage problem.
 |
a breakdown of figures associated with the energy storage challenge:
 |
professor banerjee also discussed wind energy, using renewable energy for our transportation needs and using our wastes for power in his talk as well. instead of reiterating every word that he said, i’ll leave you with his conclusion slide:
 |
as you can see, the project will be costly. we currently pay about 20¢ per kilowatt hour for electricity where we would be paying about 40¢ per kilowatt hour (roughly double) if we transition to alternative sources of energy. however, the most important thing to takeaway is that it is doable.
i’m interested to see how many people would be against/for paying the extra 20¢ in order to make our city more sustainable. you guys already know how i feel about it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
look for stuff
feed yourself