An Australian team has conceived of a large scale work of art designed to capture all potential renewable energies on a site; similar to the way a natural tree canopy would.

Speaking from Sydney, Kieran Kartun explains his team was encouraged by their firm HDR to enter the 2018 Land Art Generator design competition for Melbourne. Working during and sometimes outside of office hours, Kartun, Sonni Jeong, and Matthew Wang were specifically concerned to honor the “overlay” component of the competition, which tasked international architects, artists, engineers and landscape architects to work with an existing Masterplan to create a conceptual work of energy-generating public art for St Kilda in the City of Port Phillip. With The Canopy—which comprises a series of sculptural tree-like structures and a modular hexagonal deck—Kartun says they took a layered approach to capturing energy.

The larger, upper canopies support solar dishes and wind turbines that absorb energies in much the same way a tree’s leaves would through photosynthesis and wind resistance, according to the team’s artistic narrative. Beautifying existing technologies like the parabolic trough, which concentrates sunlight onto a fixed point, and horizontal axis wind turbines in the “middle canopy”, the team transcends the strictly utilitarian for something more interactive and “whimsical”.

Further down this built environment, the lower canopy includes a winding hexagonal deck that creates connections through key sections of the site and raised planter beds that help to offset carbon emissions. Kinetic nets amplify the fun factor as visitors interact with them, transforming enough human kinetic energy into electricity to charge small electronics. Finally, the ground plane includes sheltered zones for the community and trunks that hold batteries to store all the power generated above, as well as rainwater harvesting tanks. It also shelters turbines that generate energy from the concentrated solar trough. Upper eaves and overhangs provide shade for guests while also supporting growth in the below planter beds.  

“We wanted a design that considered the site’s different renewable energy needs, the overall linking of the site, and then also the community needs,” Kieran says of their proposal. In the meantime, they wanted their LAGI design to enhance the urban environment for the community: a place to explore fitness and health, dancing, markets, swimming, and various other activities.

“We wanted a form that was interactive and educational.”

Ambitious and multifaceted — albeit guided by senior architects at the firm who would help the graduate designers which of their ideas were good (or otherwise) — The Canopy includes a few more suggestions for St Kilda. Down by the bay, tidal turbines would extract even more energy from the site, really using every opportunity possible, with footings designed to create a habitat for the endangered Port Phillip bay shellfish reefs. Research facilities, like an experimental algae pool, could provide further opportunities for visitors to learn more about biofuel.

The team left no stone unturned in their efforts to instigate conversation about integrating renewable energy into the urban landscape and capturing the imagination of visitors, encouraging them to contemplate the potential of a post-carbon future in a way that is perhaps more hopeful than a doom and gloom approach to emphasizing the urgency of shifting away from carbon intensive behaviors.

Within the context of rising temperatures that put stress on global ecosystems, LAGI co-founders Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry applaud land art generator designs that also accommodate rainwater harvesting.

The Canopy offers St Kilda a wide variety of energy generation technologies matching the diversity of natural energies that the site has to offer. The multifaceted artwork mimics the way that a mature forest manages its natural resources, adapting through the prevalence of species to the unique micro-climates of its environment.

Kartun acknowledges that for many people, especially those who have historically held sway over centralized power production facilities that run on fossil fuels, a shift to renewables can be threatening. That may be a barrier, but he also sees a future in which people can derive energy at the source, locally, as an amazing proposition. A disruptive proposition that will have healthy consequences for the planet and humanity.

Renewables are creating a shift in the status quo that he says needs to happen. “And the sooner the better.”

Tafline Laylin is a freelance communicator and journalist who strives for global environmental and social justice. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, OZY.com, and a variety of other international publications.

The Cook Islands policy aiming for 100 per cent renewable solar energy by 2020, is expected to gain worldwide attention once a 90-minute feature documentary called Solarwind is released.

The film is being made by German filmmakers and Climate Change and Pacific Studies graduates Dennis Dellschow and Eric Petzoldt.

Filmmaker and researcher Dellschow has travelled the world and made other films on contemporary issues such as identity, climate change and technological developments and colonialism.

Petzoldt is a film producer and ethnomusicologist and has studied and performed in Israel, Fiji, Japan, Morocco and Switzerland.

Both men co-produced the documentary Undercurrents of a Changing Climate: The 12th Festival of Pacific Arts, Guam 2017, which has been screened in the US, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Germany. 

Solarwind aims to show how shared commitment and sustainable technology can change lives for the better.

The film will also include unpublished footage from 1999, showing the installation of the first solar panels on Penrhyn, Pukapuka and Manihiki. This footage came from another German film team led by Rolf Husmann and Markus Husgen.

“It was amazing how we came across these guys, and they had this footage and contacts for us to use,” says Dellschow.

“We were also lucky enough to be able to interview people from those islands while they were here for the recent festival.

“In the outer islands they have gone from noisy generators running for a few hours a day to being able to use power all day if they want. People on the outer islands say they have been stunned by the change.”

They say solar power has been successful on those islands and last week Atiu’s solar energy installation also opened. The pair were flown to Aitutaki over the weekend by Air Rarotonga, who are sponsors of the film, where they were also able to cover the installation of some off-grid solar panels there.

“We hope the movie will inspire and motivate individuals and groups from around the world to look at their own energy use and how they can save,” says Petzoldt.

They recognise that the scale of the project in Rarotonga is large and say that this is a very special place for it to happen.

“The people on Rarotonga have been extremely open and supportive to us and what we are doing.

“They have been happy to talk to us, and tell us their personal stories and the reasons why they are wanting to make this energy transition. They have been mindful and reflective with the situation they are in and for that we are extremely thankful,” says Dellschow.

He says that in Germany around 18 per cent of energy comes from wind power and it is a growing industry.

“There are positives and negatives with alternative sources of energy. With wind you have noise. The wind farms take up space and interfere with the view.

“But wind and power are still better than the alternatives such as coal and nuclear power, which are very destructive. These things have to stop. We need renewable energy and there is no way around it.”

The movie will show how wind and solar technology has and will change the lives of people in both communities. The two anticipate the film will be broadcast in cinema’s and television in Germany and also hope to return to the Cook Islands for a showing.

Petzoldt says they expect the film to take about a year to complete.

The pair will head back to Germany next week and say the experience of visiting the Cook Islands has been humbling.

“When making a movie like this you have to really listen to the people and capture their voices,” Petzoldt says.

Most owners of industrial assets have vast, rentable spaces that they aren’t taking advantage of: the roof. Warehouses and fulfillment centers—which are being developed at a record pace in Illinois—are uniquely positioned to take advantage of solar power generation like never before.

In the past, one deterrent to installing solar panels on any structure is the capital outlay. Despite falling prices, solar panels are still an expensive proposition for which some property owners and developers aren’t willing to wait out the return on investment. “Community solar,” however, does away with that cost argument. In fact, owners can be paid upfront for installing solar panels on their building.

Community solar taps into the pool of people and organizations that want to install solar panels, but can’t or don’t want to host them on their own property because of land availability, cost, zoning or other issues. These users instead subscribe to panels that are installed off-site. ComEd or other utilities track the solar farm’s production and then assign bill credits to subscribers proportionate to their share in the program.

These solar farms are often ground-based installations, but industrial building rooftops are a viable location for panels as well. So far, however, this is an opportunity that hasn’t been tapped to its potential.

“The solar industry within Illinois is set to see somewhere around a 30-fold increase over the next five years,” said Eric Pasi, chief development officer at IPS Solar. “Commercial rooftops will certainly play a significant role in that.”

Based in the Twin Cities, IPS Solar is a solar contractor and developer that has completed more than 70 megawatts of solar projects and has another 50 megawatts in the pipeline. They have worked largely in Minnesota, but because of the benefits contained within the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), they are looking to expand in Illinois.

Signed into law in 2016 but just now getting a full roll-out, FEJA calls for, among other things, 3 GW of solar power generation within the state by 2030. The Illinois Power Agency will issue renewable energy credits through an adjustable block program to incentivize the creation of new solar farms.

IPS Solar has been acquiring land in Illinois and construction projects are underway that will go into 2019, 2020 and beyond. They are also engaging with developers and property owners to explore rooftop installations as well.

While they have much more experience in Minnesota, Illinois in particular is poised for more rooftop installation. Industrial building sizes are much larger in Illinois as they can run up above 1 million square feet while Minnesota warehouses typically top out at 200,000 square feet.

“And in Illinois, you’re allowed to put a lot more solar on the rooftop than you are in Minnesota,” said Steve Oman, solar sales executive at IPS Solar. “So whereas really big buildings in Minnesota don’t fully benefit, in Illinois, you can go up to three-quarters of a million square feet and basically slather that rooftop with solar panels as part of two co-located community solar gardens.”

The typical paybacks in Minnesota for large-scale solar, using incentives within Xcel Energy’s territory, are in the five- to six-year time frame. But according to Pasi, the payback turnaround in Illinois is more like three to five years, depending on which utility and incentive program the user works with.

“If you look at direct pricing, especially in these initial, adjustable blocks, it is very financially attractive,” Pasi said. “It allows us to make offers for leasing rooftops that, for a lot of these industrial property owners, are revenue opportunities that they’ve not seen before.”

In the first quarter of 2018, the I-80 Corridor saw a number of new industrial deliveries, including five buildings whose combined square footage surpassed 5 million square feet. Those five buildings alone could represent incredible revenue generation.

“If you assumed that all of those properties were developed to their fullest extent and they all were in the initial adjustable blocks, that would create up to $8 million in revenue for just those five buildings for the property owners,” Oman said.

The number of qualifying projects that have already applied in the state exceeded the funding amount, forcing the Illinois Power Agency to move to a lottery. The application window for the initial adjustable block is now closed, though there will be two more open blocks in 2019 and a third in 2020.

“People usually vote with their time, effort and energy,” said Oman. “The fact that there are so many applications in there is a reinforcement of how attractive the initial program truly is.”

Industrial facilities and solar farms have some commonalities that make for an ideal partnership. New, Class A fulfilment centers and ground-based solar are both likely to be constructed in exurban submarkets. So why not put one atop the other? The added benefit here is that the heights of modern warehouses, combined with the land use on neighboring properties, lead to very little chance of a structure obscuring the panels from the sun.

On the back of e-commerce, many distribution facilities are also targeting last-mile capabilities in urban centers. Installing a solar array on these buildings makes sense as well, as it puts the clean power generation closer to the end user, increasing distribution efficiency while also deepening the potential pool of nearby subscribers.

Roof-mounted solar would require enhanced engineering to support the added weight. This extra cost, however, falls within standard ROIs. What’s more, a developer who builds a warehouse with this added infrastructure has future-proofed the property, as industrial REITs are becoming savvier about the revenue potential of solar rooftops.

“The reality of building a building now and not making it solar-ready is that you’re basically locking yourself out of the opportunity, potentially, to do it later,” Oman said. “I’ve had an opportunity to talk to many industrial REITs. This isn’t news to them, especially as they look at properties in other markets. Most of them have prior experience with solar and they’re getting a lot more comfortable with it and the idea of buying a building that has a solar garden on it.”

With falling prices and new state incentives, the climate for new solar power in Illinois has never been better. And for owners and developers of new industrial buildings, the revenue potential atop the vast and empty rooftops is getting harder and harder to ignore.