A music festival is an event often held in a field. A temporary stage is erected and services are provided such as showers, toilets, food stalls, and a camping site.

All infrastructure required has to be available on site and normally delivered on trucks without pipelines or normal permanent structures. Some larger events are compared to a temporary town with a population of thousands. This makes them an ideal microcosm model for off-grid living and testing zero carbon alternative technologies.

We focus our initial research on the electricity supply.

Past: Diesel Generator

The classic solution for powering an event or a music festival has been a diesel generator. This eliminates the logistical complications associated with connecting up to the local grid infrastructure such as capacity planning, load modelling and short-term contracts with electricity suppliers. A fully self-contained solution provided by a diesel generator was the simplest and most reliable option.

The diesel fuel was extracted from oil wells, refined, and transported often thousands of kilometers, to the event site. Here it would be burned in the generator to produce electricity.

The generator size for comparison can be quoted based on instantaneous power plus storage capacity. The instantaneous power is often quoted as "apparent power" (unit kilo-volt ampere or KVA) which is roughly comparable to real power (unit kilo-watt or KW). The storage capacity is normally quoted in litres of fuel which needs to be converted to the power capacity in kilo-watt hours (or KWh) based on the efficiency of the unit. This in turn can be converted to a fuel price to determine the cost per KWh of electricity. The levelized cost of electricity is the ideal cost for comparison and it takes into account the hire cost for the generator unit and any logistics such as delivery, servicing and insurance.

Today: Biofuel + Battery + Solar

Since the change to UK tax law in 2022 it is no longer possible to use agricultural diesel ("red diesel") for commercial events. This has led many events to switch to 100% biofuel based on a hydrotreated vegetable oil. This fuel is renewable in the sense that the carbon is taken from the atmosphere during one growing season and released in the next. This fuel is fully compatible with many existing diesel generators and indeed the same generator can be straightforwardly and conveniently switched from fossil diesel to biofuel and back again many times over its operating lifetime.

Often the efficiency of the generator for intermittent usage can be improved by pairing it with an electric battery. Even when the battery is powered only from the biofuel generator, the cost of the fuel for the application can be reduced. For systems employing such a battery it becomes possible to add on-site power generation in the form of solar panels and wind turbines. Most generator hire companies provide this full range of options and are able to advise on the best mix for a given project or event.

Future: Alternative Batteries

Even though the mainstream use of biofuel for generators has dramatically reduced the need for fossil fuel for events, there are still issues with this approach. Land is sometimes cleared of trees and carbon is released to provide enough space to grow the biofuel feed stock. Supply chains need to be audited and constantly monitored to ensure the most harmful effects of this are mitigated.

An approach based on a more enclosed and self sufficient power generation cycle is believed to be possible. In the future this may even be economical.

If a sufficiently large area can be reserved for solar panels, or a temporary wind turbine can be erected for the site, then the missing technology is the battery or other electricity storage.

Option 1: Large Lithium Battery

Option 2: Onsite Hydrogen Electrolysis

Option 3: Flow Battery

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References

https://checkyourfact.com/2022/07/01/fact-check-glastonbury-festival-stage-diesel-energy/

https://www.fuelproof.co.uk/fuel-proof-news/red-diesel-rule-changes-from-1-april-2022

https://www.aggreko.com/en-gb/news/2022/noeur-news/fuels-blog---we-made-the-switch-to-hvo

https://www.coresite.com/blog/faq-what-is-kva

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_generator