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The role of Visual Simulations in Renewable Energy

May 31st, 2010 Randall Hand

Everyone seems to support renewable energy (solar farms, wind turbines) on the surface, but as soon as you ask them if they would mind a 50-foot Wind Turbine in their backyard, NIMBY kicks in full-force. New-Zealand company Truescape has found that visual simulations, conceptual animations combining actual simulated or measured data with site data, can go a long way to allaying these fears.

Measures to combat such objections have been developed and successfully implemented by a New Zealand-based company, Truescape. One method, time-lapse simulations, using actual site data (wind speed, wind angle, sun beams, turbine dimensions and rotational speed) can accurately depict how a wind farm would appear under the climatic conditions experienced during the course of a day,from dawn to darkness.

via Visual Simulations Allay NIMBY and Other Stakeholder Concerns on Renewable Energy Developments | Earth Times News.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Graphics energy

Peter Ostrowski
Randall-
This is all very interesting but I would be hard pressed just to see this animation without sound- you have the potential for sound pollution which can be greater than soul destroying “eye pollution.”
I must also state that I have my reservations about the forensic reliabilty of some of these obejects. We in New Zeland know of better visualization capabailities than what you are presenting with Truescape
images – when I look at their images I wonder if at all if they use any perspective correction algorithm as all their stills seem to have objects look like thay are falling over!
James Wilson
I agree with Peter. I too have seen better work than this done by another New Zealand company (Buildmedia). Cutting-edge stuff and as an engineer, I’m looking forward to using it even more as technology and realism keeps improving.
http://www.buildmedia.co.nz Murray Pearson
Hi James. Would like to hear from you. You can find me on the Buildmedia web site. This subject of visual accuracy has been talked about often and obviously we believe we have some well-developed systems. We are working on some new technologies that will raise the bar to a new level for environmental Visuals. Cheers. Murray Pearson.

Jamesbryant
Hi Murray. Lets face it Buildmedia is a jack of all trades and master of none. Websites, Product Specs, now Environmental expertise. Maybe Buildmedia a very small NZ company should stick to it’s pretty pictures and leave the real stuff up to those who know what they are doing. James Bryant

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