With 130,000 people each year visiting the Roskilde Festival, the festival is – albeit only for a week - Denmark's fourth largest city. To provide a festival of this size with electricity creates complex challenges.
This project is an attempt to create a green and sustainable solution for a lighting installation that can entertain the festival goers while being independent of the power mains. The power source for this installation is solar energy.
Solar cell efficiency, however, is non-linear. So we’ve developed a system that functions much like normal household solar cells: Harvesting energy from the sun during the day and saving it in a battery that runs the installation at night. It is possible to increase the efficiency of this system by implementing Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The purpose of the MPPT is to adjust the voltage of the solar cell so that the operating point is as close to the point of maximum power point as possible.
The purpose of the installation is to create a focus on solar energy and rational use of light. This is done through a quiet, but engaging tale of the genesis of energy in the tower through the day and later distribution to the light poles that light up during the night. The design is inspired by the relationship between the substation and the utility pole.
Contact info@roskilde.dtu.dk if you want to hear more!