Exterior windmill for sustainable energy at festivals ensure

Environment, Eindhoven University of technology is currently developing a 21-metre-high folding wind turbine. The GEM-Tower (Green Energy Mill) must be used in combination with solar panels generating sustainable energy at festivals. It is possible that the windmill this summer at Pukkelpop.

The GEM-Tower consists of coloured solar panels, a vertical wind turbine and a dense module below. It is not yet clear how much energy the windmill can generate. "We don't know yet, because our mathematical models are based on the ideal situation, and a certain efficiency," says doctoraatstudent Patrick Lenaers. "We're going to the windmill this summer, on different days of testing."

The windmill will be loose on the ground, and in and folded out. "We're going to the windmill so that we can collapse, but also that he all the weather conditions must be able to handle. Safety is always number one," explains Lenaers. the

The GEM Tower is to be fully completed by 2020. This summer will be the windmill, however, already be tested, but he will still not itself be able to expand. The creators think of Pukkelpop in Kiewit as a possible testing ground. “That is still not at all sure, but it is a kind of deadline that only at the end of the summer," says Lenaers. "Pukkelpop is reasonable at the end of the festival season, so it entirely depends on how the production is going to run. And that will also determine where we can go get testing."

The Pukkelpop organisation is not on the facts, the anticipation and wait for further calls. It is a project from Interreg, which there are a dozen companies are involved. In addition, three doctoraatstudenten - in addition to two final year students - full-time at the windmill. The project at the Technical University Eindhoven can count on a European grant of 2.3 million euros.