Physalia is half-boat, half-building, and all green. This mammoth aluminum concept by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is meant to travel Europe’s rivers, making filthy water drinkable. At the same time, the ship generates more energy than it uses.
A coat of titanium dioxide paint brushed onto the silvery shell will neutralize pollution by absorbing ultraviolet rays, enabling a chemical reaction that decomposes organic and inorganic toxins. (It’s the same technology used in certain high-tech concrete that breaks down airborne particulates.) As the vessel whips along, purifying waterways, it can draw on both solar and hydro power. Turbines under the hull transform water movement into electricity, and rooftop photovoltaic cells harness energy from the sun. The roof doubles as a nursery, whose carefully selected plants help filter river gunk, whether from the Thames, Rhine or Euphrates.
But Physalia isn’t just designed to be a working ship. The vessel will also be a floating museum of sorts. Scientists who study aquatic ecosystems can hole up in the dedicated “Earth garden” lab, and tourists can visit temporary exhibits in a “water garden” or settle into a submerged lounge that could easily pass for a London nightclub. Callebaut, 33, dreamed up the idea after last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen shone a long-overdue spotlight on global water issues. He has some lofty terms for his project: It’s a “nomadic hydrodynamic laboratory,” a “fragment of living earth,” and a “floating agora” on a “geopolitical scale.” Others might just call it a cool idea.
Okay, I was baffled by how turbines could generate electricity on a boat. Turbines could only take energy from the boat's forward motion, which makes it equivalent to a solar-powered flashlight. At night. I found that Gizmodo was also baffled, but Treehugger's article explained it:
ReplyDeleteThe turbines engage when the boat is anchored and are driven by currents. The only power it gets that isn't solar is chance currents, while anchored. And I rather imagine that the flimsy transparent solar panels of the roof capture about enough energy to run the lights. = )
That is: I imagine most of its time will be spent idly charging, and that it produces more energy than it uses by sheer virtue of not using very much or, for that matter, doing very much. I mean, it passively takes in energy from motion and light, and then it's using that electricity to produce motion and light. With maybe a third of its upper surface covered in solar panels, plus random currents underneath, that's just not a hell of a lot of energy going in. Imagine 100% efficiency at every level, and it's still a very, very slow boat.
I don't honestly see how a huge, functionally useless conversation piece qualifies as "green" anything. Whatever reaction it's catalyzing in the water could be done without the boat.
But I get that it's primarily an awareness thing. It just sort of fails as a proof of concept.