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Monash pedals into Earth Hour on a wave of human dynamos

Friday 13 March

The Future Spark Team Challenge is a competition to generate electricity to power Melbourne’s Earth Hour concert at Federation Square, 6.30pm 28 March, 2009.

It is hoped that two Monash University teams will take part and compete in the event, consisting of a mix of academic and sport staff.

Teams will cycle against each other with the aim of generating the most power for the concert. All the power generated by the teams will go back into Melbourne’s electricity grid, to offset the concerts power usage.

The Monash teams are taking part in Future Spark as part of Monash Sustainability Month. The event also provides Monash University the opportunity to create awareness of innovative practices, work within the community to enhance sustainable practices and for the team members to learn through practical experience.

The idea for Monash to send a team to Future Spark came about through Raqibul Hassan (Sustainability Officer, Monash Sport), David Pawley (Share Bike Project) and Martin Doulton (Director of Sport).

Andrew Robinson from Monash Sport’s Sport Performance Unit, is taking part in the event, commenting “Personally I need the exercise and it ties in with the power to the grid project we had discussed as a 4th year engineering project.”

From this experience, Andrew hopes to develop an indoor cycle room of bikes for Monash University that return energy to the grid.

Andrew also comments -

“We hope to demonstrate in physical terms what energy expenditure feels like. If we quantify it through individual experience (the proverbial blood, sweat and tears) then theoretically this becomes a more meaningful understanding for individuals as to what it means to leave a 100W light on for 1 hour...”

The team expects to generate just over 1 kW, or average 300 watts per rider for 1 hour.

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These excercise bikes could power Melbourne's Earth Hour Concert