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Green Designers and Inventors – I Know You’re Out There! Optimistic Kiwi Editor Invites the World to Tell New Zealand How to Power Its Communities Sustainably

Submitted by Charlotte on January 24, 2011 – 3:28 pm

Image from Bill Curry - Power House Wind - entered Wild Energy

A Kiwi good-news website editor says New Zealand is one of the last green frontiers and is inviting people, world-wide, to help Kiwis keep it that way by suggesting the greenest ways to power their nation as they face increasing demand for power.

So how would you suggest New Zealand, little shire of Lord of the Rings and land of lush green national parks should generate its power?

Charlotte Squire, Editor of the good news website ‘Happyzine’ is hoping that ‘Wild Energy’ – the sustainable energy design competition – will illuminate the myriad of green ways New Zealand can power its communities.

“How do you power your home? If you’re off the grid, or have figured out ways to generate or conserve some of your own power for your home or your business, and can see a way your green energy design could help power New Zealand, send in your designs. Enter Wild Energy!” said Squire.

Wild Energy has been running since October 2010 and is due to close the 31^st of January. Squire says one reason she and co-organiser David Laing (a Sustainability Consultant) are running the challenge is because they aim to help preserve New Zealand’s wild rivers for future generations.

Says Squire –

“There’s been a lot of talk here in New Zealand of damming our beautiful, ancient wild rivers and generating hydro-power. While hydro-power has its benefits, I know it’s not the only way to generate power and I personally would rather preserve these pristine, ecologically diverse wild rivers for our children and our grandchildren so that they can enjoy them just as we are.”

Unsurprisingly the good-news Editor is adamant that people can come up with alternative, cost effective ways of powering New Zealand.

“As a nation facing increased power demand, it’s time we allowed ourselves to become a lot more positive, creative and innovative about our energy
The Mokihinui River - will it remain in its natural state, or be hydro dammed?
generation options. We have so much to choose from including solar, wind, tidal, hydro, and various forms of waste that generate gasses to name a few.
“The world is teaming with with sustainable energy designers and inventors. Some of you tinker in your back yards and sheds, while others spend their days creating amazing, eco-friendly designs as students, or professionals. Let’s change the future of New Zealand’s power generation. I want to see New Zealand powered on a mix of wind, solar, water, and waste. No fossil fuels, no tampering with invaluable resources, we’re far more intelligent than that, I hope!

“Send in your designs, the more creative, and innovative the better.”

So what’s in it for you? You could win the inaugral Wild Energy trophy, a weekend of green lushness at an eco-stay in Golden Bay, New Zealand, the professional acknowledgment of a panel of high calibre judges (including recently retired Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons) and recognition three Kiwi Ministers of Parliament who are keen to check out the entries.

Wild Energy is open for entries now and closes 31^st of January. Head to www.happyzine.co.nz for competition guidelines.

Or head directly to: https://happyzine.co.nz/2010/10/18/happyzine-announces-the-launch-of-wild-energy-the-green-energy-design-competition/

Five Key Points:

Wild Energy is a green energy conservation or generation design competition which has been created so as to inspire more excitement and creativity about the future of New Zealand’s power supply;
It’s run by the good news website Happyzine as a positive way of avoiding damming some of New Zealand’s most pristine rivers to create hydro-power;
You can enter as many times as you like and entries must be in by January 31^st, 2011
Entries should ideally show how to generate at least fifty percent of the power that the proposed Mokihinui Dam (West Coast, New Zealand) would create if it went ahead;
You could win the inaugural Wild Energy trophy, a weekend of green lushness at an eco-stay in Golden Bay, New Zealand, the professional acknowledgment of a panel of high calibre judges (including recently retired Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons) and recognition three Kiwi Ministers of Parliament who are keen to check out the entries.

Image from Bill Curry - Power House Wind - Wild Energy entry

Contact:

Charlotte Squire

[email protected]

www.happyzine.co.nz

David Laing

[email protected]

http://www.sustained.co.nz/

Wild Energy Guidelines

The Wild Energy competition was developed as Happyzine’s response to the challenge we face both as a global community, to produce more electricity in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Meridian Energy propose to develop a hydro generation scheme on the Mokihinui River (which is located on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand). This would involve the construction of a dam, and the consequent flooding of part of the valley, and the disruption of many species of wildlife in the area.

We believe that there must be other ways of generating or saving the energy that the proposed scheme would produce, and this competition has been designed to spark the nation’s creativity, and showcase the best ideas.

The New Zealand Electricity Commission reported in 2008 that the Mokihinui scheme would have a capacity of 60 to 85 MW, and produce an annual output of 310-360 GW/h of energy. It would be wonderful if the (scaled up) entries to this competition were able to demonstrate the potential of either saving or generating at least fifty per cent of this figure. Of course, any alternatives have to be practical too. The same 2008 report estimated the generating cost at 9.82 cents / kWh (with an initial capital cost of some $304 million). The competition judges will be using this information as part of their evaluation criteria for practicality of implementation.

Entries

We want you to enter your ideas for either saving or generating electricity that would either be directly equivalent too, or could be scaled to the equivalent of half the output of the proposed Mokihinui project (see above).

Entries can be either:

• Designs that generate stationery energy (that is, not transport fuel)

• Designs that reduce energy usage

You must (as part of the entry) include the likely energy generated (or saved) by your design, and the cost (both to implement, and to operate).

Your entry must include a description of the design (500 words maximum), plus relevant pictures (minimum three, maximum five) or video. An entry can be either conceptual (an idea), or an actual implementation – something you’ve tried, or are using.

1. All entries must be submitted by 11:59pm on 31st January, 2011 order to be considered.

2. To enter, email the team ([email protected]), with description and up to five photos (as jpegs) (and where relevant, link(s) to video (hosted on either Youtube or Vimeo)) of your clever, creative ideas about how to generate power in Aotearoa/New Zealand in a sustainable, intelligent, small-scale fashion.

3. You can not infringe on anyone’s copyright or intellectual property with your design, and by entering the competition, you agree that your work is your own.

4. By sending us your entry you agree that you are allowing us to freely publish your material online.

5. Judging will be carried out by the Happyzine community (who can rate your entry out of five stars before 31st January, 11.59 pm) and by a panel of judges. The judges will score your design out of five. The winners will be announced on the 14th of February, 2011.

6. The judging criteria will be:

• Feasibility – How practical is the idea? Include consideration of costs and energy generation or conservation.

• Sustainability – How will the idea impact upon the planet? The potential to create positive change for the planet?

• Creativity – How lateral thinking, and ‘out-side the square’ has the designer been with the entry?

• Imagination – Does the entry reuse old ideas in a new way? What is new about this concept?

• Design – Properly designed objects fit their context so well that they are easy to use and beneficial to the user.

7. The Wild Energy categories will be: 0 – 11 year olds, 12 – 18 year olds and Adult. When you email us your entry, tell us which category you’d like to enter it into. Entry is free. You can enter as many times as you like (providing your entry was designed with integrity), provided that each entry includes a different design or concept.

8. For each category there will be a Viewers’ Choice, a Judges’ Choice and an Overall Winner. We will also be giving away spot-prizes to participants.

9. The winning entries will be decided upon and announced by14th February (Monday). They will be announced in the Happyzine ezine initially. The Overall Winner will be the entry with the highest Viewers’ and Judges’ ratings (which will both be rated out of five).

10. Happyzine withholds the right to decide not to enter any submitted design into the Wild Energy competition if we deem that it’s not quite up to the quality or integrity of design we’re seeking to promote or otherwise contravenes these rules.

11. In entering the competition the winners agree to work with us on up to two press releases to promote their designs via the world-wide media web, once their entries have been chosen. They also agree to refer to www.happyzine.co.nz during all publicity and interviews beyond Happyzine’s scope for the next twelve months when discussing their winning entry.

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