Green Wave Environment Competition

The Green Wave Environment Competition is an annual competition organised by Sembawang Shipyard and is open to all students in the Primary, Secondary, Junior College and ITE, and Tertiary levels. Students are required to think of innovative ideas and projects that can improve and protect the environment. More details about Green Wave.

The results of the Green Wave Environment Competition 2007 was announced yesterday with a total of 46 awards given out to students. These winners were selected from 278 project entries and about 1,000 students participated. Check out the winners here.

One of the commendation award winners is the project on “Free and Reliable Wind Energy Source from Building’s Exhaust Air”. This is a project that I did last year during my postgraduate studies (purely for fun).

The project idea came about while I was waiting for a shuttle bus at a shopping centre. While waiting at the bus stop next to the building, the people queuing behind (including myself) was trying to keep our hair from being messed up by a constant strong wind. This wind is not natural but is actually the exhaust air emitted from the building. I thought to myself, “This exhaust air is so strong that it can turn a wind turbine”.

      

     

Instead of considering natural wind as an energy source, another potential ‘artificial’ wind energy source would be to tap the exhaust air emitted from buildings. Buildings have ventilation and air-conditioning systems to maintain an acceptable indoor air quality and to maintain cool temperatures. Fresh air is continuously supplied into the building for ventilation and air-conditioning purposes and the ‘waste’ air is emitted out from the exhaust outlets.

This exhaust air has a relatively fast velocity that can turn a wind turbine placed at the exhaust outlet. The wind turbine generates electricity back to the building for its energy usage or used to store energy in batteries for backup purposes. This energy source is free as it uses exhaust air from buildings, and reliable because the wind turbine will not face problems of intermittent wind since the exhaust air is always blowing when the building is occupied.

If you have a better or new idea, do consider joining the Green Wave Environment Competition 2008. Registration is now open.

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