Located on the roof of the Human Powered Student building are ten Skystream windturbines. Together, these can supply 20 kW of power with a strong breeze (11 m/s).
Whenever it’s windy, human energy production is taken over by the wind turbines. During windy periods, students thus enjoy free and effortless energy use. Daily working duties are reduced or eliminated.
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If the wind blows long and hard enough, and the maximum capacity of the hydraulic power storage is reached, the student building has an oversupply of energy.
This excess energy is used to have fun on the roof, which has jacuzzis, large screen televisions, powerful game computers, and a sound system. During windy periods, students head for the roof to enjoy sustainable decadence.
Human power and wind (or solar) power make a good combination. If the student building would run on wind power alone, it would require an extensive energy storage system to deal with the variations in wind energy.
Combined with human power, however, the need for energy storage is reduced significantly. The students themselves are the batteries.
On the other hand, the human powered student building can only be wind powered because it's designed to be human powered if necessary. It's the low energy use of the building that makes it possible to power it with wind turbines on the roof.
Without a significant reduction in energy demand, the roof would be much to small to power it by wind energy alone.
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