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| 30TH AUGUST - 5TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK
High viz
A team of Dutch researchers and
companies has developed a 21m-tall
fold-out tower that incorporates
solar collectors and a wind turbine to
generate power at festivals. The Gem
tower was tested at the Pukkelpop
festival in Belgium earlier this month.
The research team points out that
almost all festivals in Europe use
polluting diesel generators as their
power supply. The polluting nature of
festivals had long been a thorn in the
side of associate professor of innova-
tive structural design, Faas Moonen,
who secured a €2.3 million subsidy
from Interreg Europe for the project.
He began work in 2017 on a sustain-
able alternative, appointing a postdoc
and three PDEng researchers to help
him. Ten companies, including the
A Gem of an idea
Operations & Assets
High viz
Photo:
Bart
van
Overbeeke
