Reshaping the Modern Landscape?

Standing over the Stalybridge Canal.
Iain Hart, 2004

Earlier this week, I have to confess I was rather bemused to see an entire section of BBC Breakfast news devoted to those very familiar steel giants - the electricity pylon. But on listening further to the invited representatives from the Pylon Association Society (the fantastically named Flash Bristow) and the Royal Institute of British Architects, it suddenly dawned on me that, love them or hate them, the electricity pylon is an important part of not only our power network but also our modern landscape. 

A competition has been launched to redesign the British electricity pylon - offering the chance to reshape a part of the landscape that has not changed in more than 80 years. The competition is run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) for the Department of Energy and Climate Change and National Grid and is calling on architects, designers and engineers to come up with new designs for pylons.

There are currently 88,000 electricity pylons in the UK, including 22,000 on National Grid's main transmission network in England and Wales. Their design was chosen by leading architect Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1927, and barely changed since. Considerations must be made to ensure they’re resistant to high winds and lightning strikes and able to cope with the incredible load and tension of the cables.

Quoted in the Telegraph, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said "I hope the pylon design competition will ignite creative excitement, but also help the wider public understand the scale of the energy challenge ahead of us." Let us know your thoughts at energy@mosi.org.uk

A Great ‘Green’ Day Out



A trail to the Mill



At a weekend there’s nothing a Museum worker likes more than a busman’s holiday! But this one was so interesting it deserved a spot on the energy gallery blog! The National Trusts Gibson Mill - a 19th-century cotton mill situated in Hardcastle Crags - is a fabulous ground-breaking project which has developed the Mill as a model of sustainable development, with minimum impact on its environment.

All the energy needed by the Mill to open to the public and function as a building is generated on-site, using renewable sources. It has no mains electricity, and isn't connected to mains water or sewers. In fact, as the charming guide told us, “the only outside service that Gibson Mill is connected to is the phone line.”



Gibson Mill - Copyright National Trust



Energy at the Mill is created by water powered turbines (with battery storage capability), voltaic panels (the main source of electricity in the summer when the water level of the river is too low to drive the turbines), solar hot water panels and biomass from the surrounding woodland (to heat the café). Other green measures include; the use of low energy appliances (lights, fridge etc), maximisation of natural light, utilising a natural spring next to the Mill for drinking water, passing grey water produced through a ‘soakaway’ (clay pipes that help to naturally filter water through the soils before it reaches local groundwater) and installing composting toilets (yes, worms!).

But my particular favourite feature has to be the human powered lift! To combat the obstacle of no mains electricity, this lift uses a counter balance system of pulleys and weights whereby the operator can effortlessly pull visitors to the first floor and back down again.

Sustainability, green energy, dressing-up for the kids and miles of woodland for the dog! A great Green day out!

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hardcastlecrags/w-hardcastlecrags-gibsonmill_project/w-hardcastlecrags-gibsonmill_project-sustainability.htm

Friday Night Viewing

Interesting programme on Beeb2 Friday (7pm) – Windfarm Wars – showing what happened when a global wind farm developer tried to build a wind farm in the heart of some of Devon's landscape. Following the Den Brook Windfarm development, it shows the extent of passion both for and against the build as consciences are torn between the need for action on climate change and the fears of the impact on the countryside's peace and tranquillity.

I’m no TV critic, so a rather whimsical review by the Guardians Sarah Dempster – “A story of a delightfully odd eco-battle in Devonshire” - can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/may/13/tv-review-wind-farm-wars

According to the write-up tomorrow’s episode apparently covers the ‘dramatic Public Inquiry’ – sounds like good Friday night viewing to me.

'A very able cable indeed'

Wind turbines out at sea need a thick strong cable to connect them to the electricity system. Cables, like the one in the picture, can carry a lot of electricity and are not affected by the harsh environment of the sea bed. They need to be self insulating and self protecting unlike onshore overhead lines which rely on air and distance to ground. Not only is the cable strong, it’s also smart. It contains 48 fibre optic lines, allowing high speed digital communication along the power network for optimum performance of systems on the network, or even for commercial use.

This submarine (undersea) cable is a sample of a type used in 2010 to export power from wind turbines. Once the power has passed through an offshore substation which steps up the volts from the turbines (33kv), the cable takes it over the long distance to our power grid - hence the size! To give you an idea, its capacity is 132000 volts - versus 240 in the average home!.  It was made by Prysmian and is of a type used in Vattenfall's Thanet offshore wind farm, the largest in the UK. Wind farms scheduled to be built in England's north-west between 2010 and 2020 will use cables like this.

This section was kindly donated to MOSI by manufacturer Prysmian, and Siemens, who specify cables like this in wind farms designed in Manchester. It’s only about 30 cm high and 25 cm in diameter but still weighs about as much as an average 2 year old!!! 

Revolution Manchester: A taste of what MOSI can deliver

Revolution Manchester 'Energy'

Revolution Manchester is a ground–breaking interactive gallery, created as part of MOSI’s 2010 re-development of the Great Western Warehouse. Its intention is to act as an introduction to all the major themes which feature across the Museum – encompassing 6 small (but excitingly interactive) sections, which tempt you further into each topic. The most relevant for this Blog is, of course, ‘Energy’. 

Manchester's Industrial Revolution needed a huge surge of energy.  The people of the city harnessed the power of coal to make steam and electrical power.  By 1900 the first power stations were built to provide a new energy source, electricity.  Engines in the heart of Manchester drove turbines in the UK's first combined heat and power plant. By the 1920s, Manchester-built machinery laid the foundations for the UK National Grid and for other power grids around the world. Energy is a key part of the North West’s industrial past, present and future.

The Energy section is built around a scale model of the ZETA generator - the UK's first nuclear fusion experiment built in the 1950s by Metropolitan-Vickers of Trafford Park. Using the special Revolution Manchester registration cards (I’m not telling you, you’ll have to come and find out for yourself!) up to 5 players race against one another using touch-screen technology to create nuclear fusion (or rather, a graphic representation).   



The hands-on interactive approach to nuclear fusion!!

Revolution Manchester shows what MOSI is capable of - producing a modern gallery which will excite and engage today’s technology savvy and social media-hungry audiences, offering a new approach to museum interpretation and encouraging further exploration and research. We aim to learn from this approach and apply to the development of the wider Energy Galleries.



MOSI's Energy Symposium

In April, MOSI hosted an event which invited key representatives from the energy sector to discuss what they considered to be the most important stories to tell in the Energy Galleries. It is the first time that MOSI has approached Industry to become involved with a redevelopment at such an early stage and we were unsure whether it would be beneficial - or whether it would even work!! We posed the question:

"If this was your gallery - what would be in there?" 

Thanks to all those who attended, a fantastically energetic and in-depth workshop revealed a wealth of knowledge, passion and a desire to tell the energy story as a whole. Some of the top ideas were as follows:

• Dispel myths about future energy sources
• Offer an unbiased view of all the energy options available
• Celebrate how far we have come already with green technologies 
• Make it relevant to our everyday lives
• Showcase the latest technologies and products

If you have any suggestions about what would be in 'your energy gallery' please let us know by emailing me at energy@mosi.org.uk

Welcome to our new Blog!

MOSI's Electricity and Gas galleries play an important role in telling the story of the North West's energy history and its impact on the wider world. The energy sector is an incredibly fast moving area, both in terms of development of new technology and wider issues of energy generation and consumption. This has resulted in galleries filled with fantastic collections but which are exceedingly out of date. MOSI recognises the need to offer an unbiased overview of the options currently available, the impact we're all making and the future changes that will affect us all.

MOSI hopes to redevelop its energy gallery offer – bringing it up to date and relevant with the help of industry experts and our visitors. This blog will track our developments along the process and hopefully create a platform for suggestions and ideas.

Be a part of shaping MOSI’s energy story!