Since launching a pylon design contest earlier this year, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and National Grid have pored through 250 proposals from designers around the world to come up with a list of six finalists. Those half-dozen designs are now on display at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum through Oct. 5, during which members of the public can offer their comments via the pylon competition website.

“Britain will see the equivalent of twenty new power stations constructed by 2020, and we need to use electricity pylons to get this new, low-carbon energy to your televisions and toasters, dishwashers and DVD players,” said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne. “We must make sure that we take into account the visual impact on the landscape and also the view of the public, and this is what the pylon design competition is all about.”

To coincide with the pylon design display, National Grid has also published its new approach to building new transmission infrastructure. Using this approach, National Grid will put greater emphasis on mitigating the visual impact of its new electricity lines, while balancing this with the need to minimize household energy bills.

“Connecting Britain’s new power stations to our homes and businesses will be one of the great infrastructure challenges of the next decade and beyond,” said Nick Winser, National Grid’s executive director UK. “Through the use of new technology, pylon design, extensive consultation and undergrounding where appropriate, our new approach will ensure we consider very seriously the visual impact of new transmission lines.”

Comments by the public on the pylon design finalists will be taken into account by a judging panel, which is set to make its final decision later in October.

Both releases are designed to complement the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2012 aimed at helping industry professionals increase efficiency and remove waste from their processes.

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is conceptual design software that helps evaluate future infrastructure in the context of what already exists by creating, evaluating and communicating project proposals. AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 is model-based design software that helps utility designers and engineers design, analyze and deliver more productive and consistent electric distribution designs.

“Engineers and owners developing infrastructure projects are facing unprecedented challenges — lower project funding, design complexity, economic uncertainty and public resistance to major infrastructure projects,” said Paul McRoberts, vice president, infrastructure product line group, AEC solutions, at Autodesk. He said the new software was designed to “help our customers in transportation, water, energy, and land development segments to overcome these challenges …”

When you factor in populating multiple systems and applications, and printing and distributing designs manually, it used to take days to complete even simple projects,” said Ray Pearce, GIS project manager at Anchorage Municipal Light & Power. The new software, he said, has enabled the utility to automate time-consuming procedures for better modeling during the design process.

Officials in the UK, which has just launched a competition for a new pylon design, believe it is important. The current design of electricity towers hasn’t changed in more than 80 years, they argue, and there have been dramatic advances in metallurgy and engineering since then. With a growing supply of renewable energy feeding into the grid and regulations demanding greater efficiency and lower carbon emissions, the infrastructure needs updating anyway.

While underground power lines tend to be smarter both in terms of resilience and aesthetics, it’s not possible to bury transmission cables everywhere. (And going underground is also more expensive.) That means a new generation of above-ground transmission structures will also need to go up.

“(I)t is important that we get the look of that as right as we can,” said Chris Huhne, Secretary of Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Being led by the Royal Institute of British Architects for DECC and National Grid, the competition, Huhne said, is “designed to find the leading-edge pylon design that will stand us in good stead for the next 80 years.”

So what’s so tough about designing a good electricity tower? Pretty much everything, considering what the right design has to achieve:

• It has to be physically able to stand up to almost anything nature can throw at it: cold, ice, snow, heat, floods, lightning strikes and gale-force winds. Being as rust-proof as possible is also important.
• It needs to be solidly rooted in concrete, no matter what the underlying surface is.
• It needs to support heavy, high-voltage power lines at high tension levels, even when those lines change direction from one tower to the next, putting additional stresses on the structure.
• It must be relatively easy to access so maintenance crews can perform replacements and repairs with a minimum disruption to electricity service.

And, on top of all that, there’s the aesthetics challenge. People in areas without overhead power lines often object to the obtrusiveness of new facilities. And those who live near existing pylons might resist new designs that appear unconventional or strange.

That’s one of the goals of the new competition as well: to “explore the relationship between energy infrastructure and the environment within which it needs to be located.  The challenge is to design a pylon that has the potential to deliver for future generations, whilst balancing the needs of local communities and preserving the beauty of the countryside.”

“Design has never been far from our energy network,” said Ruth Reed, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. “This is a technically challenging but exciting competition, with the potential to improve our landscapes for decades to come … “

Entries will be accepted through 12 July, with a shortlist of finalists chosen by the end of July. The finalists’ designs will be open for the public to view and comment on, both online and at an exhibition to be held at the V&A as part of London Design Festival in September. A panel of judges will then meet in October, with a prize fund of £10,000 will be shared amongst the winning candidates.

Australia

These towers (right) carry electricity from the Channel Island power station near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. Aussies call the transmission tower an “ironman.”

Canada

This high-voltage direct current tower (pictured at left) stands near the Dorsey Converter Station near Rosser in Manitoba, Canada.

China

The pylons used in the power line crossing over the Yangtze River in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China (at right and at top), are the tallest electricity towers in the world. Erected in 2004, the pylons are 346.5 metres (1,137 feet) high, making them taller than the Eiffel Tower (324 metres, or 1,063 feet). Each one weighs 4,192 tonnes and features an elevator running up its centre, with a spiral staircase on the outside of the elevator shaft.

Egypt

Built in 1998, the Suez Canal power line crossing towers in Suez, Egypt (left), stand 221 metres (725 feet) tall. While the 600-metre (1,968 feet) span of the crossing wouldn’t normally require pylons of this height, the towers were built tall enough to ensure a 152-metre (499 feet) clearance over the canal for unimpeded shipping.

Germany
Built in the 1970s, Germany’s Elbe Crossing 2 (right) features electricity pylons that stand 227 metres (745 feet) tall. The height was designed to allow a 75-metre (246 feet) clearance over the Elbe River so ships can pass back and forth from the deep-water port in Hamburg. The tallest pylons in Europe, the Elbe Crossing 2 towers are also the sixth highest in the world.

Japan

The Chusi power line crossing in Japan (left) was built in 1962 between Takehara and the island of Ōkunoshima. The two 226-meter-high (741 feet) pylons are the tallest in Japan.

Russia

The Shukhov electricity tower (right) on Russia’s Oka River is the only electricity pylon in the world with a hyperboloid design. Designed in the early 20th Century by Russian engineer and scientist Vladimir Shukhov, the 128-metre (420 feet) pylon was originally one of two in the river crossing system. The crossing was decommissioned in 1989 and one of the towers was illegally destroyed (reportedly for its steel) in 2005.

Spain

Erected in the late 1950s, the pylons of Cádiz in Spain (left) stand an average of 158 metres (518 feet) high. While not hyperboloid pylons like those designed by Russia Shukhov, they are structurally similar. The design made it possible to improve the electricity transmission system at a time when Spain had limited access to steel carriers because of restrictions placed on the regime of then-Head of State Francisco Franco.

UK

The Thames crossing in Kent features the tallest electricity pylons in the UK (at right). Erected in 1965, towers stand 190 metres (620 feet) tall, enabling the power lines to cross the Thames at a span of 1,372 metres (4,501 feet) while maintaining a clearance of 76 metres (249 feet).

Venezuela

The three pylons (at right) enabling power lines to cross the Orinoco River in Venezuela each stands 240 metres (787 feet) tall. Until construction is completed on the Costanera Center in Chile, expected in 2012, the pylons are the tallest manmade structures in South America.

Climate change, resource depletion, water scarcity and other major environmental challenges have prompted governments and venture capitalists to sponsor a wave of entrepreneurial innovation. Entrepreneurs worldwide are striving to address these issues through breakthrough technologies and new business models. Fortune 1,000 companies are also heavily focused in this area, often collaborating with smaller firms to tap into new ideas. The resulting cleantech industry is a dynamic force in the economy today.

Private investors are active as well. Cleantech venture capital investments equalled $5.64 billion in 2009, with notable concentrations in North America, Europe, and Asia — about a quarter of all global venture investments and the most of any single category. According to the United Nations Environment Programme and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investment in the sustainable energy market defied the global recession, growing by around five per cent  — from $148 billion in 2007 to around $155 billion in 2008. Industry analyst predictions suggest that cleantech investment in 2010 will recover and exceed 2009 numbers.

Scoping the challenge

Erwin Burth, director of industry development for Autodesk

Yet despite the strong recent growth of the cleantech market, the sector today is facing a range of complex challenges. One of the most important of these challenges is the need to accelerate time to market. Like all startup companies, new cleantech-focused organisations are heavily dependent on bringing their products to market quickly to tap into new revenue streams.

Speed to market is, however, a particularly key issue in the cleantech arena. Cleantech products often integrate with infrastructure and broader systems and they typically need to be developed using alternative materials, so bringing a product to market is a complex, lengthy process. Also, as cleantech is a relatively new and highly competitive arena, market timing for new products is often a key determinant not just of long-term success but of short-term survival. And from a broader societal perspective, it is important that new cleantech solutions are developed rapidly to find greener alternatives to the way organisations operate today.

Finding a solution

Fortunately, there is a new approach to product design that enables cleantech manufacturers  to overcome this challenge called “digital prototyping.” Developing cleantech products requires high-quality, 3D mechanical design and simulation software that allows product designers to create digital prototypes. Digital prototyping helps to make the cleantech product development process far more efficient by allowing manufacturers to digitally design, visualise and simulate how a product will work under real-world conditions before it is built. It reduces reliance on physical prototypes, which helps accelerate time to market in highly competitive industries like cleantech. It also assists cleantech manufacturers with using recyclable materials and to fully optimise materials usage.

By giving conceptual design, engineering and manufacturing departments the ability to virtually explore a complete product before it becomes real, digital prototyping makes the whole design process more streamlined and efficient. It also reduces the inherent risk in the process, helping to ensure that cleantech companies make their mistakes on the computer desktop — where the cost is low — and not in the factory or  the marketplace. After all, an engineer can try out many design iterations to test if a digital prototype works at a much lower cost with fewer materials, and have confidence the physical prototype will perform better.

Digital prototyping also helps cleantech companies become cleaner and greener. Dedicated to solving environmental problems, it is important that these firms design and manufacture their products in a sustainable way. Part of this means  selecting product materials that can be re-used or are biodegradeable at the end of a product’s lifecycle, and part of it is about reducing or eliminating toxic materials and sourcing materials more wisely.  Twenty years ago, the development of a wind turbine would have typically involved significant materials waste. Today, this practice would be entirely unacceptable. Digital prototyping  is the key to easily exploring alternative designs to see which ones best meet both a product’s commercial and sustainability objectives.

Looking to the future of sustainable design

Pyrum Innovations, a German/French startup working on a newly invented recycling process for used tyres, is one of a growing numbers of cleantech companies that have joined the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Programme.

Today, the clean technology industry has the opportunity to solve some of the most pressing environmental problems of our generation and is one of the most dynamic sectors of the global economy. As we look to the future, the increasing  purchasing power and capital investments by multibillion-dollar global companies underscore the market opportunities that lie ahead in cleantech. In a recent survey conducted by Environmental Leader into the views and opinions of large corporations, the vast majority of respondents project their companies will spend at least $10 million on cleantech investments by 2010, with 22 per cent predicting a cleantech spend of at least $100 million. Case in point: giant conglomerate GE said it will double its eco-related R&D spending to $1.5 billion in 2010 and aims to double its revenues from sales of cleantech products and services to $20 billion.

This is positive news, but the success of the cleantech sector in coming years will depend heavily on the innovation of smaller businesses and startup companies, where digital prototyping will be critical in driving faster time to market and competitive advantage for cleantech businesses, from solar device-makers to wind turbine manufacturers. Embracing digital prototyping will separate the winners from the losers, particularly as consolidation occurs in sectors or geographies where there’s been over-investment in recent years.

One thing is clear, those cleantech companies that employ digital prototyping are increasing their odds to seize more than their fair share of the market’s rapid growth.

Editor’s note: This was a guest article by Erwin Burth, director of industry development at Autodesk. Autodesk, which specialises in 2D and 3D design technology, recently launched a Clean Tech Partner Programme in the UK and across Europe. The scheme provides digital prototyping software grants to clean technology companies to help them innovate more rapidly.

Munich-based multimedia artist Michael Pendry first approached the firm Siemens in the fall of 2008 with the idea of creating a shining symbol for green technologies and sustainability prior to the Global Climate Summit in Copenhagen this December. Together, Pendry and representatives from Siemens decided the ideal site would be a huge wind turbine alongside the A9 autobahn in Fröttmaning at the gates of Munich. Wind turbine operator Stadtwerke München (Munich City Utilities) agreed to support the project.

Now fitted with 9,000 light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the turbine will switch on its holiday display starting on the first Advent Sunday and will keep it lit through 31 December.

Experts began assessing the proposed display in the spring of 2009, seeking answers to a variety of vexing questions: How should the LEDs be arranged to have the least possible impact on the wind turbine’s aerodynamics? Which type of LED should be used? Which adhesives were most effective for securing the LEDs in every type of weather?

Late in the summer, wind energy experts completed their computer simulation analyses on the effects of the installation on the rotor aerodynamics. After that came wind tunnel tests at the Technical University Berlin to analyse over 15 different configurations of lighting arrangements, LED models and cable routing. The tests concluded the LED installation would have only a minimal effect on the wind turbine’s performance.

The project also required approval from all relevant authorities. Siemens experts for traffic safety spoke with the autobahn authorities and air traffic officials to ensure the artistic installation wouldn’t pose a danger to motorists or air passengers. A lighting expertise confirmed that people living in the vicinity of the wind turbine wouldn’t be bothered by the LEDs. And experts also confirmed there would be no increase in the turbine’s noise level.

The installation itself was completed in the record time of two weeks. More than 30 technicians worked on embedding 1,000 LED-Dots, consisting of 9,000 LEDs, in special aerodynamic adapters to ensure minimal effect on the wind turbine’;s performance. After the lighting animation software will be installed, the green “Superstar” will be ready to shine.

The international award, run by the James Dyson Foundation, is open to product design, industrial design and engineering university students and post-graduates who have been out of school for less than three years. The top prize-winner, to be announced on 7 September, will receive £10,000 in cash, a James Dyson Award trophy and inclusion in the James Dyson Foundation’s publicity campaign. An additional £10,000 — in cash or equipment — will also go to the student’s university design engineering department.

Last year’s winner, Michael Chen, was a student from Middlesex University who designed a cycling jacket that signals the rider’s plans to turn to motorists and other road users.

This year’s shortlisted designs from UK-based students include:

Meccano: The electric-free automatic door

Rather than requiring electricity, this door opens when an approaching person steps on a footplate, which transfers that motion to a mechanism that opens the door. With a footplate on both sides, the door can be operated from either direction. A weighted balance system then closes the door after the person steps off the footplate.

Humo: The human dynamo

Embedded in a jacket, this device harvests energy from the wearer’s normal arm swing during walking or running. That energy can be used to power lights in the jacket, providing safety at nighttime, or could also be applied to mobile devices. Humo’s generating capacity averages about a half-watt.

Artica: Low-energy cooling

Artica’s “thermal battery” uses a phase-change material and latent heat for energy storage and natural cooling. The system uses less than 10 per cent of the energy used by conventional air-conditioners, and also filters out particles and pollutants in the air.

The Contortionist: Folding bicycle

Designer Dominic Hargreaves was inspired to create the Contortionist because he couldn’t find a folding bike he liked that could “take a bit of punishment.” Not only do all the parts of his bicycle fold up to fit within the circumference of its 26-inch wheels, but the folded-up bike can be rolled rather than carried.

Microfactory

The idea behind the Microfactory is to create a domestic, do-it-yourself manufacturing machine that can cut computer-designed patterns at home from a variety of materials so users can build a variety of products themselves.

Airbus will use Dassault Systemes’ technology for its A350 XWB programme, which is focused on designing a family of new-generation aircraft suited to the market’s changing needs in terms of size, range, passenger comfort and the environment. The new planes are being designed for improved fuel efficiency, reduced emissions and lower noise levels during departure, cruise and arrival.

“Dassault Systèmes is supporting Airbus in its objective to improve manufacturing techniques and to increase collaborative innovation for sustainable business,” said Etienne Droit, executive vice president of Dassault Systèmes.

“In today’s interconnected world, it is even more critical for manufacturers to intensify their collaborative approach for smart product design and development,” added Albert Bunshaft, vice president for IBM product lifecycle management. “IBM and Dassault Systèmes have worked together to deliver an implementation that allows Airbus to collaborate more easily with partners and suppliers.  This helps optimise operations globally and creates a  leaner and faster model for product development.”

The summer-long Design It: Shelter Competition, launched on the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright and concluding on the Guggenheim Museum’s 50th anniversary, is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and a recent Guggenheim exhibition called “Learning by Doing.”

The competition offers a twist on an assignment given to students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and aims to empower anyone to use Google tools to think about design and ultimately share their ideas with the world.

After choosing a location in Google Earth, competition participants will use SketchUp to design their shelters in 3D and upload them to the Google 3D Warehouse. They submit an official entry on the Guggenheim website and, within a couple of days, will be able to see their work, as well as other participants’ submissions, with the Google Earth Plug-in on the Guggenheim Museum’s website.

The deadline for model submissions is 23 August, with 10 finalists to be selected by 7 September and winners to be announced on 21 October.

Winners will receive airfare and two nights’ accommodation for two in New York City, behind-the-scenes tours of both the Guggenheim Museum and the Google office in New York, complimentary admission to selected New York museums and a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license.

]]> http://www.greenbang.com/global-google-contest-seeks-3d-shelter-designs_10014.html/feed 0 http://www.greenbang.com/waggling-wings-could-cut-aviation-fuel-bills_9593.html http://www.greenbang.com/waggling-wings-could-cut-aviation-fuel-bills_9593.html#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 15:44:17 +0000 Greenbang http://www.greenbang.com/?p=9593 Aircraft wings that redirect air to waggle sideways could cut aviation fuel bills by 20 per cent, according to research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences…

Aircraft wings that redirect air to waggle sideways could cut aviation fuel bills by 20 per cent, according to research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Airbus in the UK.

The new approach, which could dramatically reduce mid-flight drag, uses tiny air-powered jets that redirect the air, making it flow sideways back and forth over the wing.

The jets work by the Helmholtz resonance principle — when air is forced into a cavity, the pressure increases, which forces air out and sucks it back in again, causing an oscillation — the same phenomenon that occurs when blowing over a bottle.

“This has come as a bit of a surprise to all of us in the aerodynamics community,” said Duncan Lockerby, the project’s lead researcher at the University of Warwick. “It was discovered, essentially, by waggling a piece of wing from side to side in a wind tunnel.”

Lockerby continued, “The truth is, we’re not exactly sure why this technology reduces drag, but with the pressure of climate change we can’t afford to wait around to find out. So we are pushing ahead with prototypes and have a separate three-year project to look more carefully at the physics behind it.”

“This could help drastically reduce the environmental cost of flying,” said Simon Crook, EPSRC senior manager for aerospace and defence. “Research like this highlights the way UK scientists and engineers continue to make significant contributions to our lives.”

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