All over Europe, festivals take the lead in finding innovative ways to use resources intelligently, employ renewable systems and reduce emissions. Yet at these festivals, diesel generators are still the most employed source to provide electricity due to a large amount of power needed. Using diesel to generate electricity has big disadvantages: substantial CO2 emissions, noise annoyance of droning generators, and bad smell. With the latest developments in renewable energy, for instance vertical axis wind turbines, more efficient solar panels, improved batteries, now allow for an efficient and economically attractive approach to produce large amounts of power from sustainable resources only.
PowerVIBES aims to reduce festivals’ carbon footprint by 20% by making diesel generators superfluous. Instead, affordable and reliable energy is produced from renewable resources wind, biomass, and solar power. To illustrate, if the Netherlands’ summer festivals cut their diesel consumption by 10%, over 1.000.000 litres of diesel and over 3,000 tonnes of CO2 is saved annually.
This project combines a vertical axis wind turbine, PV panels, and a battery, all customized in a containerized unit and with a bio-fuel generator as backup. All are connected in a smart grid. Two of such transportable units (with smart grid) will be built and tested on in total 16 festival sites. This extensive testing regime is essential as of large differences among festivals, as they operate under significantly different legal, technical, seasonal, locational, and environmental conditions. This process of reflection and feedback (with a loop of testing-analysing-adjusting-implementing after each test) leads to a (practically) universally applicable system, to be used in all countries of the NWE region.
This energy production is completely clean. Therefore, the unit can be clearly visible on a festival site to reach an audience of millions that experiences this sustainable energy concept.
33 Heuvellaan
Hilversum
1217JL
Netherlands
152 Diestersteenweg
Leopoldsburg
3970
Belgium
6 Unit 6, i-Quarter, Pelham Road, Central Park
Rugby
CV230PB
United Kingdom
24-26 Alderscholes Lane
Thornton, Bradford
BD13 3SY
United Kingdom
21 Trompsingel
Groningen
9724 DA
Netherlands
14 Zessprong
Best
5684 NV
Netherlands
11 Ringweg
Heerde
8181 NA
Netherlands
62 Burggravenlaan
Gent
Belgium
5 Groene Loper
Eindhoven
5612AZ
Netherlands
Lead partner
| Organisation | Address | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technische Universiteit Eindhoven |
5 Groene Loper Eindhoven 5612AZ Netherlands |
s.p.g.moonen@tue.nl | www.tue.nl |
| Name | Contact Name | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double 2 BV Mediaproducties | Jan Douwe Kroeske | info@d2bv.nl | Netherlands |
| The Factory CVBA - VSO | Robbie Scaut | robbie@pukkelpop.be | Belgium |
| Off Grid Energy Limited | Danny Jones | danny.jones@offgrid-energy.co.uk | United Kingdom |
| RPS Conservation Services | Rob Scully | rob@RPSconservation.co.uk | United Kingdom |
| Eurosonic Noorderslag | Dago Houben | dago.houben@esns.nl | Netherlands |
| Flexotels BV | Hubert Von Heijden | hubert@flexotels.com | Netherlands |
| ZAP Concepts | Paul Schurink | paul@zapconcepts.com | Netherlands |
| Democrazy | Eric Smout | eric@democrazy.be | Belgium |
On Thursday, January 20th at 4 PM, GEM is hosting a panel at the Eurosonic/Noorderslag Conference 2022. During this panel, the future of power supply at festivals will be discussed with Max Aerts (DENS), Brenda Dobrovicsova (Rock for People), Floor van Schie (TU Eindhoven), and Rob van Wegen (GEM Tour manager). Jan Douwe Kroeske (Double 2) is hosting the panel. Read More
From 24-27 August 2021, Studio Brussels will broadcast live from the GEM-Stage at Boomtown in Gent. Read More
GEM-Stage is now fully operational for touring Europe Read More
GEM-TOWER HAS BECOME GEM-STAGE With the expansion of a stage and a hydrogen generator, artists now perform on 100% renewable energy Read More
Interviews with Anne Schaepman, director of Paleis Soestdijk, Floor van Schie, who is part of the GEM team and visitors of the park Read More
Henk Ruseler, forester at the National Park, and Faas Moonen, GEM architect, talk about design en sustainability Read More
On July 3rd, the GEM Tower was officially opened at the National Park de Hoge Veluwe, the Netherlands. Read More
Due to COVID-19 we have changed the plans for our European festival tour with GEM. Instead of showing the GEM tower at the festivals itself, we now talk to the festival organizers in a new video series. For now, stay safe. The PowerVIBES GEM team Read More
We look back on a great year 2019, where the design of GEM was presented in January. The tower was built for the first time in the summer. And of course its presence on Pukkelpop in Belgium and the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven for the first test measurements on wind, solar and battery storage. Come visit GEM at ESNS in January 2020 and read more about the battery storage. Read More
In this newsletter we want to inform you about Monday August 5, 2019 when we had the first lifting of the GEM-Tower at Eindhoven, University of Technology. And we would like to give an insight in the LSC panels, used for the tower. For those who joined later please also find a short summary about the GEM-Tower at www.gem-tower.com/newsletter Read More
GEM Stage present at King's Day 2021
Read More
EV Experience event
Read More
Praha září festival (Czech Republic)
Read More
GEM Tower landed in the park of Soestdijk Palace
Read More
GEM Tower open to public at NP de Hoge Veluwe in the Netherlands
Read More
GEM Tower located at Military Base ‘Fieldlab SmartBase’ to run tests
Read More
GEM tower was at ESNS Groningen in January 2020
Read More
The Dutch Design Week Eindhoven is the biggest design event in Northern Europe and presents work and ideas of more than 2600 designers to more than 350,000 visitors from home and abroad.
Read More
Pukkelpop is a three-day festival in Hasselt (Belgium) which began in 1985. Pukkelpop started life as a small, local music event and has now become one of Europe’s greatest music events.
Read More
Monday August 5 GEM tower has been lifted for the first time at the campus of Eindhoven, University of Technology.
Read More
Factsheet GEM-tower (2021) Read More
Legislation Read More
Design process and programme of requirements Read More
Energy generation Read More
Building and lifting Read More
Testing Read More
GEM-TOWER HAS BECOME GEM-STAGE With the expansion of a stage and a hydrogen generator, artists now perform on 100% renewable energy Read More
GEM-Stage featured at Boomtown Ghent With the expansion of a stage and a hydrogen generator, artists now perform on 100% renewable energy Read More
GEM Tower in the game of Rock for People festival (CZ) Read More
Article on GEM Tower in scientific journal Structural Engineering International Read More
Best wishes from PowerVIBES GEM team Read More
GEM Tower stays @ home on campus TU/e Read More
GEM Tower @ EV Experience event Formula 1 Circuit Zandvoort (NL) Read More
GEM Tower @ Prague (Czech Republic) Read More
GEM Tower @ Soestdijk Palace in Baarn (NL) Read More
GEM Tower @ National Park de Hoge Veluwe Read More
After weeks of GEM being in lockdown, it’s finally time to bring out the tower and to run tests. Read More
In this fifth episode we’re speaking with Nathan Wiersma, the executive producer of SAIL Amsterdam Read More
In this video, we're talking to Brenda Dobrovicsova, who is responsible for all the non-musical entertainment at Rock for People festival in the Czech Republic Read More
In this episode of the Digital GEM Tour we're speaking with Sam Hermitage, who helps the Glastonbury Festival become more sustainable with his company Green Futures Festivals. Read More
In this episode of the Digital GEM Tour we're interviewing Chris Seggelink of Scouting Texel 2020. Read More
In this first video we talk to Paaspop director Chris Seijkens and Program Manager of Paaspop Innovates Willem Wouters, about their view on sustainability in the events industry. Read More
