Powerful Thinking and Julies Bicycle are proud to have launched EE MUSIC in the UK on Wednesday 5th March at the Bargehouse in London. Managed by 8 European partners and spanning 27 countries, EE MUSIC aims to increase the music event sector’s understanding of its energy use and impacts and build its ability to become more energy efficient and sustainable in energy source and use.  It brings together a network of sustainability and energy experts, music industry experts and communications agencies to both inspire leadership within the sector and build capacity through a range of events, workshops, training, best practice case studies, online resources and tools.  To find out more about EE MUSIC and explore best practice case studies from some leading European music venues and festivals, go to the EE MUSIC preview website

New Research from the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University, suggests that a 50% reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and significant fuel savings are possible at most UK festivals without compromising production values or the bottom line.

The research, part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project with Midas UK, a leading Biodiesel power supplier,  studied power systems at many events in 2013, examining how power was managed and identifying opportunities for efficiency gains.  Combined with previous research, they have now analysed over 200 profiles from monitoring different systems at UK events. The summary of results, presented to the Powerful Thinking steering group on 21st January, included detailed load profiles and breakdowns of power consumption onsite, and pointed to hybrid technology and smart grids being the future of energy management onsite.

Average power consumption by type at UK Festivals 

Source: Paul Flemming, DeMontfort University (2013)

The summary of findings confirms earlier research, suggesting several key ways to reduce GHG emissions and fuel consumption, and further builds the case for opportunities. However, this is the first time there has been enough data to suggest that a 50% reduction in GHG’s is possible whilst saving costs at the same time.

The key opportunities they identify are;

1. Specifying energy efficient equipment, such as LED lighting, and switch mode amplifiers.
2. Switching off when not in use – surprisingly uncommon at events.
3. Using batteries for storage (hybrid systems), for low level requirements and overnight base-loads.
4. Sizing generators more effectively. The data shows that many generators are oversized. The profiles should allow for more accurate sizing in the future.
5. Switching fuel. Once all the above have been done, then operators could consider fuel switching to incorporate renewable energy (PV, wind or biodiesel).

Further research will focus on the role of hybrid systems and smart grids in delivering fuel and GHG reductions, improving operational safety and real-time management of festival power. DeMontfort are currently developing an 3 year industry KTP to explore the opportunities with industry.

Are you a power supplier or manufacturer, and interested to find out more? Contact us at info@powerful-thining.org.uk

Powerful Thinking proudly presents ‘People, Planet, Profit’ – a panel discussion at the Event Production Show, as part of the Access  Sessions.

The session takes place at the Event Production Show, Earls Court, London at 1-2pm on February 11th and will be located in the main theatre space.

For more information about the show and to register click HERE

Powerful Thinking launch energy advice for the Screen Arts.

We are proud to have worked with Media Greenhouse, as part of our Energy Factsheet series, to  co-produce guidance on  sustainable energy management for the screen arts. Media Greenhouse,   ‘The home of environmental sustainability for the UK screen arts’ and offers comprehensive resources’ has been compiled by an industry consortium, convened by BAFTA, for the promotion of sustainable working practises across the media production industries.

Powerful Thinking and Mediagreenhouse have compiled an Energy Fact sheet for the Screen Arts which can be found HERE.

Explore www.mediagreenhouse.co.uk

Powerful Thinking presented on a panel at the AFO conference (16th November), alongside George Dickson from Agrekko Events Team and Mike Boden of Temporary Power. The session focussed on how organisers can cut the cost of power and the panel struggled to find areas to disagree, with all advocating that better information in advance, long term relationships and more knowledge about power all round would deliver savings, and is easily achievable. Easy wins such as LED festoon, smaller generators during long builds and better power specs from lighting companies were suggested.

This session marks the beginning of the relationship between  Powerful Thinking (PT) and the AFO as a new PT steering group member, and the development of an Energy  Factsheet with the AFO’s 187 festival  members  titled ‘Green Energy for Small Events’. This Factsheet is part of an emerging series of 10 Factsheets being produced. To see the Fact sheets produced so far click HERE.

Imogen Heap’s production wins Best Sustainable Initiative at the 2013 Event Awards. The production worked with the Julies Bicycle team, and was powered by Firefly Solar’s PedGen bicycles and Cygnus Solar Hybrid Generators.

UK born, Grammy Award winning artist, Imogen Heap invited Firefly Solar to the idyllic setting of her country garden in leafy Essex to provide power for a live video broadcast produced by our friends at Fruit Pie Music for ‘Earth Day’. It was Fruit Pie Music’s first ever open air live music event and broadcast production to be almost entirely self-powered (without using the national grid for the duration of the event) for Imogen Heap, which was broadcast live online on ‘Earth Day’.

Imogen Heap performed a brand new ‘Heapsong’ that she wrote during the course of the event. Using Firefly’sCygnus Solar Hybrid Generators in combination with 23 PedGen’s, Firefly were able to power a carbon free production for both the video shoot and technical rehearsals.

Firefly Solar worked alongside Julies Bicycle, Bluman Associates (2013 Event Award), Gaianova Geodesic Domes, Silent Gig and Sennheiser, to support Fruit Pie’s mission to produce an extremely environmentally friendly production using non grid power and emitting minimal light and audio pollution.

Kumar Kamalagharan, Event Producer from Fruit Pie Music explained:

“This was an immense project with an exciting aim, which presented us with lots of challenges to create an open air live event to take place completely off the grid, whilst showcasing a brand new prototype technology. The 23 cyclists, which were part of the on stage performance were in fact powering part of the stage lighting directly!”

Using a specially developed power calculator, it was estimated that over the course of the 10 days, a total of 235.5KWh of energy would be used. Approximately 140KWh would be stored as solar generated energy, while 3.5KWh would be generated by the bikes. The weather predicted for the event was cloud and rain and as a result it was estimated that only 1KWh of energy was likely to be generated directly. The shortfall of 92KWh would be topped up by a biodiesel generator.

The actual energy used for the whole project was 230.5KWh. Despite the inclement weather the solar panels actually generated 60KWh of energy, with the bikes generating a further 3KWh. This left a shortfall of only 27.5KWh that the biodiesel generator topped up.