Transition Culture

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29 May 2006

How Cool is That?

bike shed frontAt the Dyfi Eco Business Park in Machynlleth in North Wales you will find the coolest bike shed you’ve ever seen. The park is right next to the railway station and is a great place, very attractive buildings (for a business park), a huge PV array, but the most delightful thing there was this little bike shed. As you approach it it looks like a curved PV panel, get round the back and it’s a bike shed! What a great application of the permaculture principle of ‘Multiple Function’.

bike shed backNot sure that a PV array that small will generate that much, but it is a beautiful thing and makes a great statement. This is a great example of how we need to present renewables, as stylish, functional, beautiful parts of everyday life. Coming to a town near you?

Categories: Energy, Technology

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2 Comments

Mark
30 May 1:05pm

this kind of thing would be great, but unfortunately it would be stolen or more likely simply destroyed by people. People mainly being under 20s (though under 14 is more likely) drunk or on some drugs cocktail. If we can’t change our youth culture of increasing disrespect towards anything productive for our communities it will be hard to deploy such things on a large scale. I remember in my home village in Berkshire a man who was persecuted for years by kids, simply for trying to improve his house with visible solar and wind power adaptations. In a business park, under surveillance it might be ok. The only problem is spending so much time/money/energy protecting scuh things may outweigh the actual energy they produce. sorry to be negative, but we live in a pretty crappy society at the moment.

charlie
17 Dec 2:19pm

i am designing somthing similar to this for an AS D.T prodject, however it is for personal use public use thus one could have it at home instead of in the middle of a town. Also the solar pannels will be used to charge the go-peds that will be stored in the shed. Could you please e-mail the sizes of this bike shed as it would be greatly appreciated thank you very much in advance.