Greenland has harsh climatic conditions, poor road network and infrastructure and also comprises several isolated towns. Each community is living 20-30km apart from each other with no road/infrastructure. They face the sea and have no roads that lead inwards. The coastal villages are supplied by ferries from the main cities every 6 months and mostly rely on expensive and polluting diesel to run their equipement. Today, the isolated Greenlandic communities rely mostly on hunting, fishing and tourism. These economic activities will disappear in the future if nothing is done to protect the environnement.
The Greenland Energy vision project is a great opportunity for us to try to solve renewable energy problems along with global warming through design and engineering advancements. As designers, we were heavily influenced by the energy revolution in Orkney and how the excess energy is getting used wisely.
We had a chance to learn from such scenarios and apply it onto similar remote areas where the brief wants us to focus on. Hence, we did.
The transposition of an energy-rich regional setup onto an isolated place where people are in dire need of resources creates a challenge for us to consider and tackle all the different issues of the energy spectrum. We hope that such a system would change the underdeveloped Greenlandic towns into data and energy-rich regions.
VEHCILE DESIGN
The Vehicle is designed to give a simplistic and lucid feeling. A flexible main frame is provided for initial support that connects to the tyres. Pure rounded cuboidal shape which makes the cabin’s exterior is supported by a subframe running across the vehicle. The rear is reserved for the utility units for facilities serving the locals. The Utility units consist of a Human unit, Animal unit and a Cargo unit. They are meant to transport patients, pets, goods and other tools used by the locals.
ENERGY ECOSYSTEM DESIGN
The Power Grid Station encapsulates a kite windmill. This device is made of centric circular kites attached to each other with a set of strings. The strings are then connected to the motor which helps the generator to convert rotational energy to electrical energy.
The grid stations that contain the kite windmills are majorly located within the town but also on the paths connecting the towns. This is to ensure that people (especially hunters who travel intertown) do not get energy shortages. Each grid station has a pair of batteries that can provide up to 14kWh of electrical power that can be removed and placed inside the vehcile or a house.
ORGANISATION OF SUCH ECOSYSTEM
The towns in Greenland that we are aiming at are roughly 3-4 sq. km. These towns are located 20-30 km apart from each other. Hence, the number of inhabitants is just 300-400 per town.
There would be:
2 vehicle per town;
1 biolab per town (with windmill implantations);
7-8 Grid stations within the towns;
3-4 Grid stations in the path connecting two towns;
1 Utility station for parking of the vehicle and the utility units;
DEVELOPPEMENT IN OTHER REGIONS
Private enterprise takes up the contract to set up the infrastructure, As the current system can withstand hostile and extreme environments, it can be transposed in other less extreme situations as well. Hence, the system can be applicable in some parts of the U.S. and Nordic areas as well. By conducting seminars/webinars about the new energy generation plan and promoting via official government websites, the entity can be popularised among people with various fields of interest.
Consequently, more brands and OEM’s would start having an opportunity to profit from such a system. The internal technical components, supplies for the biolab etc could be funded from these companies.
Overall, it would be a locally produced and distributed environment which would reduce imports, transportation costs and many other such factors.