Designs of the future are increasingly centering on environmental impact as the effects of climate change start to reach world-historical levels. This means not only engineers but architects and artists are exploring new and unprecedented ways of reimagining their work to minimize intrusion on the natural environment.
Burning Man is a well-known annual event that brings a lot of entrepreneurial people into the presence of artists, which makes the development of “Solar Mountain” assemblies to potentially power the 3,800-acre ranch of Burning Man with 318,645 kWh of power per year less of a stretch of the imagination.
And if the design is completed, it could enable civil engineers and artists to reimagine the way we generate power for communities worldwide, in an unprecedented wave of nature-oriented collaboration. The new design incorporates a gigantic assortment of solar panels stretching down a gradient from a central spine. The Solar Mountain is comprised of 182 solar panels rated at 300 W (1.2 kWh per day). Combining four “units” of the massive structure, we’d have 728 solar panels with a daily energy output of roughly 873 kWh — 318,645 kWh per year.
When the litany of solar panels moves outward from the central spine, they engender a semi-covered walkway for people — where patterns of curious light accompany a passerby’s way from the panel strips above. The Solar Mountain project is now moving on to its next design stage, which means it could effectively become an artistic workshop for new approaches to architecture and sustainable engineering that we’ll see in the future of solar power applications.
Crucially, the modular design of Solar Mountain means technology developed in its construction could offer communities around the world new and eco-friendly alternatives to less sustainable forms of energy.
Source: Interesting Engineering