Sunday, October 5, 2014

Award Winning Solar Hourglass- Taylor Culler


The Land Art Generator Initiative is an organization that aims to bring people from all areas of innovation together to create art for public use, that betters the space for the users in combination with providing clean energy options that helps to power the areas in which it exists.

The awards were announced and the first place winner was called the Solar Hourglass created by the Argentinian architect Santiago Muros Corté. The site for the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) was located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The premise for Muros Corte's design was to create an hourglass form. The concept of the hourglass is based on the idea of the timer indicating "Time's Up" which is usually symbolized by sand, is now symbolized by the transfer of clean energy- speaking to the importance of clean energy before time is up.

There would be two halves of the hourglass; the upper half would be for the collection of solar energy, and the lower half would be for the generation of usable energy. The centre point between these two hourglass forms creates a place for the public to gather and have a view of the water, as well as their beloved Little Mermaid sculpture, but more importantly to see the transfer of clean energy through the sunbeam. They predict that this sculpture would become a great tourist attraction for the area. 


The way in which the sculpture collects energy is through sun tracking mirrors called "heliostats" lining the inner part of the top dome. These heliostats will direct sun energy to a singular point and is able to concentrate the heat. By using computers, the heliostats can adjust during the year to get optimum direct sun.

The lower half of the hourglass will then turn that concentrated heat energy into usable electricity as this half houses generators and storage tanks. As a result, steam is created which a small portion will be released into the public viewing area, making the solar beam transfer from top hourglass to lower hourglass visible to the public. This also makes this sculpture educational, as people from the public gain insight into the concept of clean energy. The result of this project is able to create 7500 MWh per year which ultimately can power at least 860 homes in Copenhagen.


Check out the original article: http://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/3610

-Taylor Culler












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