Key results:
- Complete festival set-up and take-down using electric equipment only
- Charging in the midst of nature despite limited grid connections
- Faster battery charging using the GridSync converter
- Results of this project are also applicable to the construction and infrastructure sectors
Charging in the middle of nature
The organisation behind Into The Great Wide Open (ITGWO) is committed to making the Vlieland festival as clean as possible. Since 2018, Greener has been supporting this and other festivals in their sustainability efforts. Last year, we introduced battery swapping, shuttling a battery back and forth to discharge it into another battery on site. This year, we refined that plan by also using electric trucks to transport the batteries.
This year, ITGWO aimed to both build up and break down the festival with zero emissions. This required an array of electric construction machinery, including forklifts and loaders. These machines are clean and effective but require regular charging. Every event organiser and contractor knows that charging electric equipment takes time and can bring work to a halt. A robust power supply is essential to charge multiple construction machines as quickly as possible. But how do you achieve that in a remote area without a stable grid connection? With Greener.
Five batteries, a converter, hydrogen, and solar panels
Greener brought five 422 kWh batteries to the island. Two of these were used for battery swapping, just like last year. Since the nearby marina’s grid connection was underutilised, we used that excess capacity to charge one of the batteries. Our energy meter ensured that the maximum load was never exceeded. The charged battery was then transported to the festival site to be discharged into a second battery.
The other three batteries were connected using our GridSync converter, which allows them to work together as a single microgrid. The converter also enabled us to combine a hydrogen generator from Watermeln and solar panels from Volta, speeding up the charging of the three batteries. This so-called “Energy Bar” was used to charge all the electric construction equipment. After set-up, the festival also relied on this powerful power supply for various performances.
