Community Festivals and Events
Imagine
Imagine if you could generate electricity just by pedalling.
How much power could you produce?
For how long?
How many people would it take to power a light globe, a kettle, a microwave, a lap top, or even a 3 hour rock concert?!
The Future Spark Bike trailer is a remarkable program that provides both an individual and collaborative physical experience of the personal energy required to create the power for common household items.
The Future Spark Power Trailer has 12 bikes, each connected to a generator positioned behind each bike.
The energy created by the bikes directly inputs into the mains electricity grid via a regular 10 amp power point.
Our aim is to inspire people to reduce their energy use and this is done by the practical physical experience of bike riding to create electricity.
We are passionate about providing an experience of the power of collective action. Each person’s behaviour makes a difference and if we work collectively together we can make a positive contribution to the sustainability of our planet.
Festivals Attended Between January and April 2010
A very busy Festival Season in Melbourne for us, attending 14 festivals and one Agricultural Show.
Including: Sustainable Living Festival, Moomba, and Earth Hour in Shepparton this year.
More details and photos in the blog.
Festivals Attended Between May and October 2009
Since the Earth Hour concert in March 2009 we have had a fantastic time at Schools and Festivals.
Between May and October 2009 we have participated in more than 15 days of festivals including:
Coburg Festival, Warrnambool Fun 4 kids festival, Knox council youth summit
Melbourne Girls College Student Environment Conference, Stonnington Spring Festival, Knox Stringy Bark Festival, Whitehorse Spring Festival, Melb. Girls College 350 Day Launch Event, Nillumbik Shire Practically Green Festival.
2009 Earth Hour Concert.
Over the course of the week March 23 to 28 the Power Trailer was based in Federation Square to generate the energy required for the Melbourne Earth Hour Concert. We had over 1200 people, the majority school children, participating to generate over 50kWh of electricity. We then held a huge concert for Earth Hour. We were successful in meeting the power needs of the 3 hr concert with some left over!
We hope to use the trailer for a similar large event in 2010.
Festivals
In it’s current life the trailer is set-up to visit schools, festivals and other events.
The Future Spark Bike Trailer is very popular among people of all ages. We provide a “hands on” program to engage people to physically experience how much effort it takes riding a bike to create energy to power a variety of household items (such as light bulbs, kettles, microwaves, laptops etc.) Also we have activities that make comparisons: For example seeing the difference between powering a 75 watt incandescent light bulb verses a 15 watt fluoro light (you have a lot of energy left to spare!). A large screen (attached to the inside end wall of the bike trailer) shows a graph of how much energy each person is creating in the moment as they cycle.
The trailer provides a powerful physical experience of relative power and energy, and transforms some quite abstract concepts in to very concrete concepts.
The main focus is on highlighting how we can reduce our energy consumption and energy waste.
We are passionate about providing people with an experience of the power of collective action. Each student’s behaviour makes a difference and if we work collectively together we can make a positive contribution to the sustainability of our planet.