Solar-Powered County Fair Makes So Much Sense
This year’s Marin County fair in northern California took its environmental theme seriously. A huge photovoltaic setup provided about 40% of the fair’s energy with clean solar power—and a solar-powered county fair makes perfect sense.
Think about it: The only time you’d go to a fair (and not be miserable) is during a sunny summer’s day, just the right time to absorb a ton of solar energy and use it to power rides like a carousel and Ferris wheel. The fair also featured an edible garden, a solar-powered audio show and a display of electric vehicles from Tesla as well as retrofitted classic cars. Hell, anything to make a county fair exciting again, right? [Inhabitant]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
DiddyWolf
@OMG! Ponies!:
clink, clink, clink
warriors, come out to pla-ay....
@OMG! Ponies!: Please! If you want medical waste, come to NJ. You can see feet in the water if you look down. They aren't your feet, but they're still feet.
@SetDipSwitchesTo_GitEmSteveDave: Yeah but homer only has enough power to turn the donuts
KaZx
@Kaiser-Machead: Did you get Raceway Park commercials as well?
~2:00 in@OMG! Ponies!: I gotta say, even with the freaks, ghettoic goofballs and seedy carnies, it really is one of the absolute best places to hang out.
Kaiser-Machead
@DayWeSpilledThePaint_GitEmSteveDave: OH I can't get that song out of my head. I remember when I was a kid and it used to come on just about every day of the week.
Kaiser-Machead
@grok666: Are you saying Chun Li is a mermaid?
"Giant Wheel" my eye!
I'll stick with Coney Island, thank you very much. We got freaks, rats, vomit, medical waste, fried food, and a kickass boardwalk.
Pretty cool. Radiohead investigated doing something similar for their concerts. I think they ended up nixing solar though because they estimated the solar panels would have to be the size of a football field in order to charge up 8 tons of batteries in time, just to power the sound system.
Amazing to think how much power we actually use, and how much things are gonna have to change in our lifetimes.
@Eric Roth: There are two of them, one in Mill Valley and one in Corte Madera.
klew
@BobFraggle: Sure - they were there... An Italian lady past menopause had the beard, the Alligator Man was spotted by his psorasis (sic?) and was working the corn dog stand, and I think that the mermaid was spotted in the Hall of Mirrors and was an oriental lady in a green skirt and who had huge thighs even before the mirror supplied the fin. ;^)
grok666
if you think thats cool, theres also a solar powered pizzeria in larkspur, about 10 minutes away from where the fair was. Its called Stefanos, and it makes super awesome pizza
Eric Roth
Or a Fiji mermaid? Alligator Man? C'mon, a bearded lady at least!
BobFraggle
Were there Siamese twins in a jar?
@KaZx: Are you sure?
I hear even the prize winning veggies were solar powered.
Yummy. A garden of deep fried goodies on sticks.
Huh, the one year I'm away from home during the fair is when they finally do something cool.
klew
As a side question, anyone from the tri-state area remember the commercials for The Greater Westchester County Fair? It's where everyone could join the fun! It was about the most fun thing you can do.
@SetDipSwitchesTo_GitEmSteveDave: well if you had xray glasses you can sem 10 of them chained to the underside of the Carousel powering it
KaZx
I think your on to something there...
blindaxs
The rest was powered by kids hopped up on sugar on a converted moon bounce.