Kat Austen, CultureLab editor
Where better to celebrate the promise of renewable energy than in a defunct petrol station?
This weekend, pop science collective Super/Collider are taking over King's Cross Filling Station in London to bring home a hopeful message about our environmental futures. “It’s a great venue for pondering the implications of a post-petroleum city,” says Super/Collider’s Chris Hatherill.
The subjects explored in a weekend chock-full of discussions, demonstrations and hands-on experiences will include everything from alternative nuclear power to improving the urban environment. George Dibb from the Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College London will give a talk about organic photovoltaics - turning light into energy - using thin film solar technology. These films are more flexible and lightweight than standard silicon-based solar cells, so everyday objects and buildings can be coated with the material. That might give new meaning to the term "powerhouse".
It’s not just solar power that’s getting a makeover, though. Stefano Longo, an engineer at Imperial, will discuss freeing turbines from their earthly ties by harnessing power from blades floating high in the atmosphere, where winds are stronger. And beating the drum of alternative nuclear power, the online video network Motherboard will be screening the film The Thorium Dream. Thorium, a greener alternative to uranium reactors, lost out in the great nuclear power struggle but is making a resurgence as we fight to fuel our power-hungry lifestyles.
Looking at the impact on air quality of gas-guzzling cars, Frank Kelley from King's College London will be talking about pollution as well as discussing artist Helen Storey’s innovative Catalytic Clothing project, which uses fabric that purifies air.
The filling station will be decked out with sculptures by artist Patrick Stevenson-Keating. He has created four alternative petrol pumps inspired by some of the alternative power sources to be discussed over the weekend. His visually arresting structures, ghosts of the station’s departed pumps, add to the eerie aura of a bygone petrol era, while simultaneously ushering in new hope with their bright colours and playfully simplistic take on the technologies involved.
“It was important that they were iconic rather than direct representations of how the technology worked,” says Stephenson-Keating. “We wanted to prompt people to start thinking about the technology they are based around.”
The weekend promises to end with a bang. There will be a discussion led by laser scientist Ceri Brenner, as well as a live demonstration of laser fusion - using lasers to begin the type of fusion you find in the sun. Now that’s a bit more exciting than pumping petrol.
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