| Finding Art in Energy in the United Arab Emirates | |||
| Nov 4, 2010 | New York Times | ||
| HILLARY BRENHOUSE
NEW YORK — The densely packed stalks that would extract power from the wind, swaying like tall, slender grasses on a patch of desert between intersecting Arabian highways, are only a concept, for now. But in well-developed design plans, the thousand or so resin poles rise 55 meters, or 180 feet, are anchored in concrete bases and are fitted with LED lamps that flicker wildly as they sway in the wind — in proportion to the energy their movements generate. When the air is still, the lights go out.
Conceived by the New York collaborative design studio Atelier DNA, Windstalk, as the project is called, recently won second place in a novel international competition in the United Arab Emirates.
The Land Art Generator Initiative, now in its first year, considers large-scale land art installations that would double as clean energy producers. Its aim is to help participants to develop and ultimately attract investment to construct power-generating plants that are aesthetically and functionally integrated into the landscape.
The contest was established by the husband-and-wife team of Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian, whose firm Studied Impact is focused on the environmental effects of design.
"We're responding in part to the not-in-my-backyard mentality we've seen regarding solar and wind installations," Mr. Ferry said. "It's easier for nonpolluting forms of energy to become intertwined in the fabric of urban planning than coal-fire or nuclear plants. If we can come up with ways to make renewable energy look beautiful, it will accelerate the transition to newer types of power."
Hundreds of entries from more than 40 countries came in before the competition closed in June. One imagined an 80,000-square-meter, or 860,000-square-foot, sculpture shaped by an undulating ribbon of suspended, thin-film photovoltaic panels like a desert mirage. Another proposed an energy park containing about 200 para-kites, each fluttering glider capable of powering three energy-efficient homes.
Visitors to a public display of the designs at the Dubai International Financial Center this summer were able to vote for their favorites, influencing the choice of 50 or so finalists.
That shortlist was turned over to a 16-member jury of local and international artists, architects, academics and industry leaders. Selection criteria for the winner included its potential for integration into the surrounding landscape; the estimated amount of usable clean energy it would produce; the way its work would address its audience; the originality and relevance of the concept; and the energy required to build it.
First and foremost, the designs were expected to function on a conceptual and artistic level, even if that would result in sacrifices to energy efficiency. Projects were free to draw on any scalable and tested technology as a creative medium.
"The sky is the limit," Mr. Ferry said. "There are just so many ways to harness energy from nature."
The first-place winner, to be announced in January at the 2011 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, will receive an award of $15,000, sponsored by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government-backed renewable energy company.
Mr. Ferry and Mrs. Monoian say they hope that the U.A.E.'s first energy-producing artwork will be built in the next three or so years. They are in discussions with investors but are not limiting those talks to the jury's selections. "We're showing potential stakeholders everything, focusing on the projects that are the most pragmatic and buildable," Mr. Ferry said.
The thick carpet of "windstalks" that came in second, as announced in early August, is projected to generate as much power in ideal conditions as a conventional wind turbine farm of comparable size. The reedlike poles may not be as powerful as rotating propeller shafts but can be packed more tightly together. Turbines must be adequately spaced apart to avoid turbulence.
"Our system thrives on chaos," said Dario Nunez-Ameni of Atelier DNA. "The more movement, the better."
Throughout their length, the stalks contain ceramic discs and electrodes strung together by cable. As they rise and fall with the breeze, the discs are compressed, generating an electric current. The concrete bases that accommodate each pole house generators that convert the kinetic energy into electrical energy by way of shock absorbers initially designed for automobiles. For days with calm weather, the power is stored using subterranean pumps.
"While I personally find wind turbines to be beautiful and quite graceful, people complain that they destroy landscapes," said Mr. Nunez-Ameni. He said he hoped next year to have a full working prototype that could be used to draw in investment.
The third-place entry, Solaris, envisages thousands of concave balloonlike solar units that shift position to respond to environmental conditions. They might realign to block harsh interior winds or orient themselves in particular ways toward the sun. Their surfaces reflect solar rays onto concentrated photovoltaic panels facing the sky, potentially creating enough energy in one year to power the country of Chad.
Together, the modules create "a huge shaded interior space where you're isolated from the rapidly growing urbanism of the 21st century that is all over the Arabian Peninsula now," said its designer, Hadrian Predock.
The installation was designed by the architectural firm Predock Frane of Santa Monica, California, for a site adjacent to Abu Dhabi's emergent eco-city Masdar, one of three undeveloped, hypothetical locations in the U.A.E. presented to the competitors.
"We liked that the site was fairly introverted," said Mr. Predock. "It's surrounded by layers of trees and r | |||
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