This week in giant ducks, we have Energy Duck, a project proposed for Copenhagen’s harbor by a team of London artists. Energy Duck isn’t just a glass and steel foil to my house fave, Florentijn Hofman’s giant rubber duck, it’s a collector and accumulator of solar energy. You just can’t make this stuff up.
When stored energy needs to be delivered, the duck is flooded through one or more hydro turbines to generate electricity, which is transmitted to the national grid by the same route as the PV panel-generated electricity. Solar energy is later used to pump the water back out of the duck, and buoyancy brings it to the surface. The floating height of the duck indicates the relative cost of electricity as a function of city-wide use: as demand peaks the duck sinks.
Not everybody finds the design so ducky. The Finch and Pea suggests that
If it gets built, though, Energy Duck will have the ability not only to provide solar and hydro power to Copenhagen’s public grid, but to fuel the nightmares of Danish children for decades to come.
Nightmare fuel is ok as long as it’s renewable, right? You be the judge. Well, actually the judges of the Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition will be the judge, but you get the idea.
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