Fans of alt-power and hyper-efficient alternatives to the energy-gobbling status quo are used to being disappointed — it’s been more than 25 years since aircraft designers Dick and Burt Rutan’s Voyager managed to fly 24,986 miles around the world without refueling. Since then, we’re happy when Pratt & Whitney manages to squeeze another three or four percent of efficiency out of one its jet engines.
The recession that kicked into high gear in 2008 probably also didn’t help give alt power the traction that it needed to take advantage of the boost solar power for live music got that same year. Promoters and artists were largely uninterested in taking a chance on new technologies at a time when live music was poised to become the biggest revenue generator for the entire industry.
Rays of Hope
Several companies continue to base their operations on solar energy to some extent or another, including Stage-Tech and Sustainable Waves. The latter, based in San Diego, works with Kleege Industries to offer what might be the industry’s largest solar-powered stage system, with a 4.83-kilowatt solar array, two 800-amp batteries totaling 1,600 amps of storage, four OutBack Power inverters pumping 120 amps of power at 120V, and a 10-kilowatt biodiesel generator that kicks in seamlessly if, and when, needed. Sustainable Waves president Mark McLarry told me that the stage worked 43 shows during the Vans Warped tour last year and the generator was never summoned to back up the solar power, underscoring what he says is a high level of reliability for alt-power stages now.
Tree Power & Sound began about eight years ago in Norcross, GA. Owner Paul Diaz’s Tree Sound Studios was hired to record the Echo Project live event in 2003, and he was taken by Sustainable Waves’ solar-powered stage. It inspired him to build a solar-and-wind-powered generator for future remote recording gigs. Later, one of Sustainable Waves’ smaller stage rigs became available, and Diaz bought it. He now operates two solar-and-wind-powered sound systems.
Tree Power & Sound’s 30-amp System A includes 16 Chauvet LEDrain 38C PAR-type LED cans, six Chauvet COLORpalette LED light panels and a three-foot American DJ Mega Pixel LED light bar, as well as Meyer Sound self-powered UPA-1P and UPQ-1P mains and USW-1P subs and a Midas Venice 320 console. System B uses Yorkville E1004 mains and ES1004 subs powered by a pair of Powersoft K6 1300W amps and two QSC RMX 1450 for the monitors, with another Midas Venice 320 console.
Economic Viability
The systems are modest but effective for small- to mid-sized gigs. For the 30 percent of clients that are nonprofits, Diaz tries to simply break even after supplying the equipment and operators. For-profit clients usually pay about $3,000 per 15-hour day. Tree Power & Sound has been providing a stage for Bonaroo for the past four years, where it commands about $2,000 per night. The same stage was used for gigs featuring the singer/songwriter duo, The Civil Wars, in the Atlanta area late last year. The alternative-energy systems might not put Diaz’ kids through college, but they are still profitable, with additional value coming from the good will it brings to Diaz’ studio business — which is not named Tree for nothing. Diaz, a self-described “tree-hugger,” has also arranged for solar power to run one of the studio’s six control rooms during daylight hours.
Even so, given the amount of time that alternative-powered staging has been around, Diaz is disappointed that it remains a narrow niche. He attributes that in part to lower gasoline prices, which have moved conservation to many people’s back burners. He also notes that competitors have disparaged the technology’s reliability, and to a perception of solar power in general that’s tinged with ideological bias.
Fear Factor
Diaz cites fans of the technology coming to him and saying how good a show sounded and looked, adding, “How does the generator influence the sound or lighting quality? It doesn’t make it sound better, they just think it does because they like [the idea of solar power].” He emphasizes that solar and wind power as well as the biodiesel backup generator he uses also provide very clean power, but, he complains, even if alternative energy can be economically sustainable, “there’s still a fear factor here — people don’t fully trust it.”
Diaz says he plans to stick with alt-power for live music. He’s planning on investing in new battery technology, connecting a recently acquired cell tower battery that will double the systems’ storage capacity.
While it will take alternative power systems a while to get further traction, the few companies that are backing the concept are tenacious and passionate about it. New technologies that will make solar, wind and other energy sources more efficient and accessible in the future are coming on line almost daily. And, after all, 2012 is a presidential election year. That could make for an interesting outdoor concert season.
