LED vs traditional stage lighting: Reducing emissions and fuel by 70%

How significant is the impact of changing traditional stage lighting for LEDs on fuel and equipment needed?

The impact of LED stage lighting on efficiency and fuel use can be huge – in the example below a saving of 70% was made. There are also other ways to reduce main stage fuel use, for example using smaller gensets or hybrid units to manage low loads overnight.

In this example scenario PAR lights, with a conventional lamp of 650 W, are changed for an LED light of 36 W saving 614 W per light.

Let’s say that during a 10hr show the total time the PAR light is actually used is approx. 2hr. If in a stage 50 PARs are used, the energy savings will be 614 x 50 x 2 = 61,4 kWh. As a result of the change, the total power demand of the stage will be reduced by 30.7 kW.

If in this example the original maximum power demand of the total stage was 80 kW, a generator of minimum 100 kVA would have had to be used. The average load on the generator would be approx. 20 kW. This load on a 100-kVA diesel generator leads to an efficiency of approx. 18%. Per show day, the fuel consumption of a generator in this situation will be approx. 110 litre diesel.

After replacing the conventional lamps with LED lights, the maximum power demand of the total stage will be 50 kW. A generator of minimum 60 kVA will be needed. The average load on this generator then will be approx. 14 kW. This load on a 60-kVA diesel generator leads to an efficiency of approx. 23%. Per show day, the fuel consumption of this generator in this situation will be approx. 32 litres diesel.

So changing the conventional 650 W PAR lights into 36 W LED PAR lights would save 70% of fuel consumption and therefore 70% of the stage’s CO₂ emissions.

This huge effect is not only because of lower power consumption by the lights itself, but also because of a reduction of the peak demand. Because a smaller generator can then be used, the average load on this generator is relatively higher and thus the efficiency of the generator is also higher. It is worth noting that designing out large demand peaks in power systems is desirable, enabling smaller generators and fuel savings, but in the case of stages, it is acknowledged that there will be peaks due to the quality of the show.

Greenbelt Festival

Greenbelt Festival Aim for 100% Sustainable Power

Greenbelt is a weekend festival of ‘arts, faith and justice’ that has been running since 1974. In 2017 they had 11,000 people onsite for the 4-day event. Greenbelt has strong commitment to creating an environmentally sustainable festival by making their site more power efficient and looking for renewable sources of power.

After moving site to Boughton House, Northamptonshire, in 2013 they went from a festival site that was partially powered from the grid to one that required 100% onsite power. Initially they used diesel generators festival to power the site but they are now, “working towards a future when the festival is powered entirely from sustainable sources,” says Event Director Mary Corfield.

Helping the Greenbelt team on this journey is production company Judgeday and power supplier Gofer Ltd, who began working with the Greenbelt team in 2016 to help them achieve their sustainability goals around power. At the 2016 event they saved 2,000 litres of fuel and for 2017 they carefully planned their power needs saving a further 16% on fuel usage.

They achieved this through careful planning, understanding that, “data is knowledge,” they worked with their traders, suppliers, concessions and artists to get a clear picture of their expected power needs across the site. This knowledge allowed Gofer to model their event power use and create ‘power zones’, enabling them to reduce the size of generators, and in some cases clustering them together so that smaller generators could be used at times of low demand. They also continued to use LED festoon lighting and switched to LED floodlights to reduce power demand.

During the 2017 festival Greenbelt had two dedicated team members who monitored power use across the site to record power peaks and lows at different times of day and in different locations. This data gave them a practical understanding of energy demand throughout the festival and has allowed them to put energy efficiency plans in place for the next season with real confidence.

For the 2018 festival they are switching two whole areas from diesel to solar powered and two further areas will be powered with hybrid generators. They will replace half of their diesel tower lights with solar and the other half will be swapped for LED flood lights.

To reduce both transport costs and waste they rent an area on the site all year round to store staging, décor and furnishings. They have a policy of recycling and repurposing materials used in previous years and they have switched to generic (rather than year/theme specific) signage, which means they can be used year on year.

To further minimise waste Greenbelt has a re-usable cup scheme in their beer tents; their caterers use 100% compostable packaging work and food waste is collected and redistributed to local food bank charities. Greenbelt won a Greener Festival Awards in 2014, 2016 and 2017 for their environmental initiatives and they are part of the Vision: 2025 community of UK festivals who are working to reduce their environmental impacts. They also work with charity, Energy Revolution, to tackle the CO2 emissions associated with their audience travel by investing in projects that create renewable energy.

They have been recognised in the industry for their commitment to social inclusion and were awarded the Act of Independence award at AIF congress in 2017 for showcasing Muslim art and culture and platforming of Palestinian artists and activists. They hold the Gold Level on the Charter of Best Practice by ‘Attitude is Everything’ for their commitment to improving access for deaf and disabled festivalgoers.

The Greenbelt team believe passionately in the ability of individuals to come together and impact their communities and environment in a positive way; they plan to continue monitoring their environmental performance, innovating to find sustainable solutions, and sharing their experiences with the festival industry.

Cambridge Folk Festival

Relationship with Energy Supplier is Key to Reduction

Cambridge Folk Festival has been running since 1965, it takes place in July and has a capacity of 14,000. The Festival is committed to reducing the environmental impact of the event and have found that a strong relationship with their energy supplier, Pearce Hire, is key to reduction.

Cambridge Folk Festival have worked with Pearce Hire for over 30 years and they have come to understand the Festival’s environmental and ethical values. They work closely with the festival’s Sustainability Coordinator and the Production Manager, to continually improve on energy efficiency, introduce new innovations and to meet the criteria for the A Greener Festival accreditations, which the festival holds.

As Pearce Hire provide both power and lighting, they can invest in more efficient lighting, knowing that their investment will be subsidized by the resulting reduction in generator size and fuel costs. They are also uniquely placed to identify where and when to turn on/off generators and therefore save fuel.

Over the years they have introduced a number of innovations in lighting: adding photocells sensors, manufactured in-house, to switch site lighting on and off at dawn and dusk as required, resulting in huge savings in energy use and cost. They also swapped power-hungry tungsten floodlights for LED and festoon lighting site-wide, and supplied LED fixtures for stage lighting — next year they are looking to invest in some new LED profile moving head fixtures.

Generators used onsite are all Euro Stage Three compliant — one of the most energy efficient, low emission generators you can get and they are arranged in an efficient system of many smaller generators rather than two big sets. The festival is also partially run off mains electricity, supplied through a green tariff, which saves 12-15,000 litres of diesel per event and makes a massive saving on the carbon footprint. Meter readings are taken every three hours during the festival so that the carbon footprint can be accurately calculated and the festival’s major impacts can be identified and improvements made where necessary.

The Festival encourages all staff and vendors to ‘switch off ’ when possible; punters are asked to reuse plastic cups to reduce litter and waste; backstage, water coolers are used instead of plastic bottles. The Festival commission wildlife investigations of the site and go to great lengths to protect local waterways, land and the biodiversity of the area from negative impacts of the event.

Over the last five years Cambridge Folk Festival have reduced their diesel usage by a third. These achievements are a testament to what can be achieved when supplier and festival teams bring mutual commitment and prioritise reducing their environmental impact.

www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk
www.pearcehire.co.uk

Mysteryland

Mysteryland: Significant energy savings in first year as a weekend festival

Mysteryland is the longest running electronic music festival in the world; 2016 sees the 23^th edition of the event. The festival has a capacity of 60,000 visitors per day. Mysteryland was founded by ID&T who have an international portfolio of world-renowned events including Sensation, Amsterdam Open Air, Welcome to the Future, and Amsterdam Music Festival. Up until 2014, Mysteryland was a one-day event, but in 2015 ID&T had the opportunity to expand the festival to a full weekender with camping.

As well as changing Mysteryland’s format, ID&T challenged itself in increasing the length and scope of the festival while reducing its environmental impact and maintaining its profitability through energy savings and efficiency. They set out to run the new campsite on 100% biodiesel, and decreased both diesel and power equipment use across the entire site.

ID&T takes the sustainability of its shows seriously: they have been awarded the highest rating for sustainability by A Greener Festival for their Welcome to the Future Festival and have been using the Julie’s Bicycle IG creative green tools to measure and record their impacts for the last three years across their portfolio. ID&T also works with the Amsterdam Dance Event to organize ADE Green: an international conference focused on sustainability and social change.

ID&T‘s commitment to creating greener events meant that they wanted to improve sustainability further for Mysteryland’s new weekend format, so they worked with ZAP Concepts, a sustainable events consultancy, to create and roll out a ‘Smart Power Plan’ to achieve their goals for energy efficiency and budget.

ZAP concepts worked closely with ID&T management, crew, and suppliers to create the Power Plan. The preparation phase was vital, it involved dividing the site into ‘Power Zones’ and calculating the power that would be needed in each zone by meticulously collecting exact energy requirement data from artists, production teams, and concessions located there — this included timings so that that the maximum power could be achieved at any given moment.

Mysteryland is a complicated site with many areas spread out as small islands, which meant it wasn’t straightforward when ensuring that each area had sufficient power. Using the power inventory from the preparation phase, ZAP Concepts planned the most efficient generator configuration for each zone and created a detailed plan for each generator’s run time with a start/stop time allocated for each generator per day for onsite crew to follow. During the construction phase of the plan, the crew were briefed on start/stop times and generators were thoroughly tested to ensure reliability.

During the show, it was proved to be vital to have a technical crew onsite to ensure that the generators were running efficiently and to problem-solve any issues. Fuel deliveries were also checked to verify that Mysteryland was receiving the amount agreed — as fuel quantities can often be less or more which skews measurements of fuel consumption. As part of the ‘Load Out’ phase of the Power Plan, steps were taken to ensure that all generators were turned off promptly after the show, as it is common for crew to forget to do this in their rush to finish the shift.

The Power Plan was a success in achieving ID&T’s aims: From 2014 to 2015 they reduced diesel consumption by 30% per visitor day (pvd) — from 0.56 liters to 0.38 liters, and total diesel use was reduced by 25%. Power needed for the festival was reduced by an impressive 40% from 2014 to 2015, from 0.15kWh (pvd) in 2014 to 0.08 kWh in 2015. The campsite was entirely powered on biodiesel and biodiesel use was increased by 15% across the entire site.

For the 2016 Mysteryland festival, ID&T aims to further increase efficiencies, reduce energy and diesel use, and increase biodiesel use. For the 2015 festival, both ID&T and ZAP Concepts agreed that using FAME biodiesel across the site was too risky in terms of reliability. They had experienced technical issues with FAME biodiesel and there were doubts about the sustainability of the provenance of some sources. They are now searching for biodiesel from reliable sources and are committed to checking the provenance with Greenpeace to ensure it is the best sustainable alternative for fossil fuel.

Latitude, Leeds & Reading

Festival Republic: Energy Management at Reading, Leeds and Latitude Festivals.

Festival Republic is a leading UK music events producer with a portfolio of 19 music festivals across Europe, including Download, Latitude, V Festival, Reading, Leeds and Electric Picnic Festivals. More than half a million people attend the festivals they own and co-produce each year.

Festival Republic are committed to understanding and reducing the environmental impact of their festivals but this case study focuses on the challenges and successes of their commitment to reducing CO2 emissions from energy use at Leeds, Reading and Latitude.

Their sustainability policy includes using waste vegetable oil biodiesel to power the festivals’ generators. Between 2010 and 2011 they increased the amount of biodiesel used at Leeds from 18.5% to 24.5%, and at Reading from 12.5% to 18.2% in 2012. This commitment continues despite there being limited biodiesel supply in parts of the country, unpredictable price fluctuations, and a higher cost for sustainable biodiesel in comparison to regular diesel. They now aim for biofuel to make up 15% of the total fuel burned on site, in line with the Julies Bicycle benchmark, and are investigating into fuel efficiency measures to reduce the amount of fuel they use in the first instance.

Festival Republic requires their energy contractor to monitor generators and provide data on the actual fuel consumption after the festival. Based on the data collected, Festival Republic is working to reduce the size and/or number of generators to better match their energy needs and be more efficient about their fuel use. In 2015 Leeds and Latitude Festival were able to reduce the overall size of the generators compared to 2014 and this was achieved even though there was an increase in the festivals infrastructure. 2016 is the fourth year of data they have collected and are working closely with their power suppliers to see if this can be used to make further energy efficiency savings.

In 2015 Festival Republic explored alternative and new energy technologies such as hybrid generators and solar power. They also hired solar powered batteries that can be linked to generators to reduce the generator run-time. After a trial at Latitude, one of the power contractors has invested in a number of these batteries tailored to their technical needs to add to their own fleet, showing that Festival Republic’s dedication is indirectly supporting fuel efficiency in the broader events industry. Combining the two different technologies has been challenging, requiring training for the engineers in the field and dedication from the teams. The initiative is not yet financially viable, but Festival Republic continues to invest to support this kind of knowledge exchange between solar power and generator companies.

Festival Republic works with their contractors to reduce energy demand through specifying more energy efficient technologies; for example, in 2012, Colour Sound Experiment, one of their lighting and visuals rental companies, invested in 1.5 km of LED festoon lighting in response to demand from Reading Festival. The Festival Republic technical production teams work with their audio, video, and sound companies to improve communication around power specs and energy requirements to encourage broader industry conversation about ‘what’s actually needed’ at festivals.

At Latitude in 2015, the audience was engaged around the topic of energy and sustainability through a partnership with De Montfort University’s ‘Face your Elephant’ project. The audience were also physically acquainted with energy awareness through cycle-powered phone charging stations to promote renewable energy in a creative way.

Since 2009, Leeds and Reading festivals have reduced their total carbon emissions significantly, by more than 20% per audience day. In 2015, Latitude and Leeds were awarded a Creative Industry Green rating of four stars and Reading has achieved three stars since 2013. 2016 was the first year in which Download and V Festival were assessed and at the time of writing this case study the results are awaited.

The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company

Cafe Mor: A revolutionary off-grid catering concession

Pembrokeshire Beachfood has traded at Freshwater West Beach since 2013, a site that is managed by the National Park and the National Trust. Their Cafe Môr trailer offers a range of high quality food inspired by West Wales produce. In March 2015, they won a Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) support from Pembrokeshire National Park Authority to test out an approach that could revolutionise the catering concessions industry and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Their remote site had no grid connection and, until the start of the project, electrical power was provided by a generator during the day and a hook up at a local farm by night. The SDF support was used to part fund the installation of solar PV panels and a small wind turbine, along with a solar inverter and a battery bank. The system removed the need for a noisy, carbon-fuelled petrol generator by day, and reduced electrical demand at night (with mains electricity used to top up the batteries if required, rather than being the sole source of power at night).

Instant benefits to the business included a reduction in generator noise, less staff time required for generator operation and maintenance, fewer trading days lost due to generator issues and increased power security as a result of having a battery back up. In the longer term the new system will also considerably reduce operation costs: in 2014, Cafe Môr used around 1000 litres of petrol to fuel the generator, which cost around £1,300. Assuming the system is optimised to minimise mains battery charging to almost zero, benefits in terms of reduced petrol consumption, reduced staff time and reduced loss of trading could be in the region of £2,500 per year: the Cafe Môr system cost just £7,500, so this would give a payback time of around 3 years.

Payback times for systems mounted on vans or trailers used regularly at events could be even better. Initial indications based on a system with three days battery life plus wind or solar recharge, during an event of 7-10 days and assuming an electricity hook-up cost of £450+VAT per event, with 10 events per year, would mean the system would pay for itself in less than 2 years on a system costing up to £9000.

Of course this is not just about money — there is significant potential for the industry as a whole to reduce their impact on the environment, and particularly GHGs. 1000 litres of petrol is equivalent to 2.33 tonnes of GHGs per year. Scaled up across the industry of 10,000 units this amounts to a potential saving of 20,000 tonnes CO2e/yr.

The next stage of the project will monitor the electricity generated by the system to establish exactly how much the system generates and therefore how much mains charging is required, and future phases of the project will look at options for reducing the impact of LPG and vehicle fuel.

Thanks to The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company and The Nationwide Caterers Association for providing the information for this case study.

Bestival

Reducing fossil fuel dependency through efficiencies and biodiesel use

Bestival is one of the last major UK festivals of the summer calendar, attracting over 50,000 audience members to the Isle of Wight in recent years for this creative indie and dance music festival.

From the outset of the festival in 2004, organisers Rob and Josie de Bank were committed to being environmentally responsible and endeavouring to annually increase the use of renewables and WVO generators for energy throughout the festival site.

Since 2013, Bestival has made great progress in reducing fossil fuel dependency and they work closely with their energy suppliers to service their somewhat awkward shaped site with maximum efficiency.

The length of the festival site makes the power supply contract a complex issue and as it is considered, “too big for a single contractor,” they use different suppliers for the arena, the showspace and the campsite.

In 2013 and 2014, Midas Productions UK provided power the campsites and at the Tomorrow’s World zone — an area where the Bestival wanted to focus on promoting a ‘fun, sustainable, inspirational future’. Midas were able to monitor and measure power use over the first year and make changes to improve energy efficiency performance in the following year.

Due to the power efficiencies measures taken and the reduction in diesel generators used on campsites, from 2013 to 2014 overall red diesel use was reduced and biodiesel use significantly increased. In 2013, red diesel measured in at 108,000 litres, which dropped to 97,500 litres in 2014. Biodiesel use increased from 16,500 litres in 2013, to 21,239 litres in 2014.

Bestival have found that the biggest users of fuel are the production sets for the stages and that in order to create the greatest efficiencies in powering them they need to have accurate specifications in order to plan the best generator configurations and timings. This requires committing suppliers to accurate requirements, although their experience is that suppliers are not always keen to “tighten up on spec,” due to the fear of power failure to the stage at times of peak power requirement, possibly because while connection sizes are easier to pin down actual loading is harder to ascertain.

Bestival are learning from such experiences and continue to work closely with their suppliers to measure and record power and diesel use as a key tool in creating future reductions. There focus is on efficient site design and they engage with their audience in green initiatives wherever possible.

Thanks to Bestival and Midas UK for the information in this case study.

Boom Festival

An Innovative Off-grid Festival

Boom is a biannual electronic and world music festival based in Portugal, with an audience capacity of 33,333. Boom Festival began in 1997 as a psychedelic trance music festival, but has now diversified to include a range of DJs, live music and visual arts performances.

Boom is powered by a mix of off-grid photovoltaic panels, diesel generators and a 100kW waste vegetable oil (WVO) generator. Boom has won the Greener Festival Excellence Award four times (2008, 2010, 2012 & 2014), and in 2010 won the YOUROPE Green & Clean Festival of the Year; which led to Boom becoming a participant in the United Nations Music & Environment Initiative.

As well as using renewable and energy efficient technology, Boom Festival is committed to the energy management practices of conducting energy audits and power demand assessments, before and during the festival, and continually auditing and reviewing generator sizes. Boom has a sustainability director who oversees an off-grid project manager and several electrical managers. Efficiencies in energy planning and generation meant they used 40% less energy in 2014 compared to the 2012 edition of the festival. In the 2016 edition, they have almost doubled the lighted areas (using predominantly LEDs), but thanks to efficiency measures their lighting energy consumption will stay the same as 2014.

In 2008 Boom collected and re-used 45,000 litres of WVO, which was used to feed their generator as well as three of their fleet vehicles. Their pioneering Your Oil Is Music project — through which waste oil is collected from local towns — ensures a local supply of renewable energy as well as engagement with the local community.

Boom festival uses 40 kWh of solar energy, which is produced onsite, and is in the process of transitioning from diesel to even more off-grid photovoltaic energy. Their largest photovoltaic array comprises 18 panels, all following the tilt of the sun, and producing 13kw per hour per day. ‘Boom Off-Grid’ is a project that was developed in 2012, in partnership with the local organisation BioEspaço, to increase Boom’s energy efficiency: it includes integrating technologies such as solar irrigation systems, LED lighting and inverters.

The area in which Boom takes place, known as Boomland, is home to around 12 long-term residents and the onsite renewable technology is a permanent feature in the community. The residents spend the 23 months between festivals living entirely on renewables, and creating an energy surplus for the next festival.

100% of all water used at Boom is biologically treated and reused onsite for agricultural irrigation. In 2016, Boom’s permanent onsite gardens will use 25% recycled water and composted organic materials. The festival is commissioning 350 dry-toilet units that are fitted with bio-filters meaning they produce no waste.

The whole of Boomland is under a Holistic Management plan that integrates the presence of the public as a technical positive impact in the local soil biota. Besides the people, domestic animals such as sheep and cattle are used to increase soil fertility and forest regeneration. In 2015, 600 new trees were planted in Boomland and many thousands more in partnership with Ecocentro Ipec in Brazil.

Thanks to Boom Festival for providing the information for this case study.

Øya

Large-scale festival powered by hydroelectricity from the grid

Øya is a music festival in Norway that has been running since 1999. For the last 2 years it has taken place in Tøyenparken, a green space in the city centre of Oslo and attracts approximately 70,000 audience members over four days.

Øya’s aims to be a pioneer of green events: leading by example and inspiring fellow promoters, businesses and audience members. Øya embeds sustainable and resource-efficient thinking across all of its operational activities, including: power, waste, food, transport, promotional materials and even toilet paper. Øya has received a multitude of awards, including two ‘Green’N’Clean’ awards, and ‘A Greener Festival’ award for the previous six years. Every year over 90% of the food served at the festival is organic. Local produce is chosen when possible, and is preferably bought directly from the local farmers. There are always vegan or vegetarian alternatives.

In 2010, Øya switched from diesel generators to exclusively grid/mains power, which is 98% renewable-derived (mainly through Norway’s hydroelectricity generation) and has removed virtually all on-site emissions. The switch was implemented gradually, with a mix of generators and mains power in 2009. It required a major investment in new infrastructure for the festival, which the Øya was able to undertake through a partnership with the municipality of Oslo and their main sponsor at the time, Hafslund (a Norwegian power company who continue to supply the festival through the grid today).

Øya also made significant year-on-year electricity consumption reductions including a 9% reduction between 2011 and 2012, and a further 22% between 2012 and 2013. These energy reductions are the result of a variety of efficiency projects and awareness-raising campaigns with staff, volunteers and external vendors. Øya has integrated energy efficiency within the festival’s technical operations by rationalising the size of light and sound mixing tables, and using LED lighting and LED based strobe lights wherever possible.

In cooperation with Hjellnes Consult (consulting firm) and Nature and Youth (Øya’s main environmental partner), Øya conducts energy-awareness tours during the course of the festival. The main office in which Øya’s staff work throughout the year also carries ‘green office’ certification.

Thanks to the help of volunteers from Nature and Youth, who sort through every single bag of waste from the festival by hand, they are able to recycle about 70% of the waste from the festival into 15 different fractions each year. This saves the environment from CO2 emissions equivalent to what 35,000 cars emit every year.

Many thanks to Oya for the information for this case study.

oyafestivalen.com

Secret Garden Party

The Secret to Saving Money

Secret Garden Party has been running since 2004, but in recent years has been increasing efforts to find alternatives to diesel generators for running this 30,000 capacity independent music and arts festival in Huntingdon.

They’re one of the big names signed up to Energy Revolution, the industry-wide collaboration to tackle climate change through the audience’s contributions to renewable energy, supported by Powerful Thinking. As well as this initiative to reduce festival emissions, they are mixing up the energy supply on site to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In SGP’s recent 10^th year, Firefly installed part of the festival’s power infrastructure, providing cleaner and greener alternative energy in the form of hybrid, solar and some biodiesel generators.

This consisted, specifically, of:

Cygnus Hybrid Power Generators (5 x 24kVA; 6 x 8kVA; 12 X 1.2kVA – with tower light)
30 x 540W solar fold arrays to form a 16kWp solar system.

These solar arrays powered 12 of Firefly’s Cygnus Tower Lights and fed into a number of the Hybrid Power Generators, storing the power to be used after nighfall.

8 Pyxis Power Packs, 12 Km of LED festoon lighting and over 100 LED floods
15 Biodiesel Generators (3 x 165kVA; 2 x 100kVA; 2 x 60kVA and 8 x 20kVA)

The energy from the this kit provided power for the production village including the site office and event control, crew catering facilities and bar, all campsite power including campsite caterers and security, all campsite lighting, lighting across the whole site and a large proportion of the entertainment fields.

A total of 3,826 hours of diesel generator run time was saved by having hybrid systems – a total of around 50% of total run time. This use of hybrid technology reduced diesel dependency by 10,285 litres. On top of that, this new diverse system saved Secret Garden Party £7,713, and reduced overall carbon emissions for the festival by a staggering 24 tonnes.