Here comes the sun ... and it’s all right
DISCO melodies mixed with bird chirpings as an old woman pedaled a fitness bike fixed on a riverside grassland. There was no portable loudspeaker in sight as I drew near to her, attracted by the dynamic scene. It was a sunny day when my wife and I took a stroll recently along an ancient river in a neighboring city north to Shanghai in Jiangsu Province.
“You have a pocket music player with you?” I asked, curiously looking for the source of music. She was sitting on the exercise bike fixed by a vertical steel pillar covered by a big sunshade umbrella.
“It’s from here,” she answered, pointing to the pillar. I moved closer and lent my ear to the pillar.
“Ah, yes,” I said. “But there are no buttons on the pillar. How did you turn it on for music?”
“No need for buttons,” she said patiently. “Put your feet on the pedals, push them back and forth, and the pillar will start to play music.”
It was a scene different from other outdoor exercises I had ever seen, where people would often bring portable or pocket audio devices powered by batteries.
Amazed by the “singing” fitness bike on which the woman exercised leisurely, I decided to examine it again. I took several steps back from the bike so that I could see it “from toe to head.” As I raised my head and squinted my eyes against the sunshine, I suddenly spotted a square photovoltaic panel atop the umbrella. It was all
clear now: The music was solar-powered. I swiftly stepped onto another bike and tried my luck. Music flowed in the air a few seconds after I began to pedal. I tried some other types of fitness facilities as well, like a “rowboat” and a swinging board. In every case music came
flowing out as a result of my body movement.
Solar power conducted with photovoltaic technology had been talk of the day worldwide for quite some time, but I rarely felt it was so close to and convenient for our daily lives before I came across the riverside bike.
There are many ways to harness solar power, and photovoltaic panels are certainly one of the most efficient, because they turn solar power directly into electricity.
The solar-powered fitness facilities, which provide “endless” music while shading an outdoor exerciser from sun or rain, promises big potential in China’s domestic market as public awareness of health increases. In particular, there has been a pent-up demand for outdoor exercises, as they help prevent cross-contagion of COVID-19.
Reducing carbon footprints
Imagine we plant more riverside esplanades with such solar-powered exercise equipment. Combined, they will improve the health of more and more people, while helping to reduce carbon footprints associated with power generation from fossil fuels.
China’s photovoltaic products have survived and thrived in many overseas markets. Official statistics show that about 63 percent of domestically manufactured photovoltaic components were exported last year, slightly less than about 65 percent in 2019.
Domestic consumption has also grown. Domestic installed capacity of solar photovoltaic power generation went up 60 percent last year over the previous year.
Earlier last month, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association predicted that China’s average annual installed capacity of solar photovoltaic power generation will further expand by 70GW to 90GW during the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). According to the association, photovoltaic technology can be amply applied to such end users as buildings, high-speed railways and agriculture, with a huge combined consumption potential.
Take Shanghai for example. Late last year, Songjiang Stadium began to generate power with its rooftop photovoltaic panels. It was the first of its kind in Shanghai.
Chongming District, an island unto itself, has also begun to construct a massive photovoltaic power base that covers more than 3,180 mu (212 hectares) and boasts an installed capacity of 110MW.
Moreover, certain sections of the city’s subway system have started to generate power with photovoltaic technology, making local transportation ever “greener.”
If you are interested, you, as an ordinary citizen, may also apply to install photovoltaic panels on your roof. In Songjiang District, for example, more than 2,600 households have successfully applied to install photovoltaic panels on their roofs to meet their daily needs for electricity. If they have surplus electricity, they can sell it to the city’s power grid for a profit.
It’s said that there’s nothing new under the sun. It depends on what you look at. If you look at what China and some other countries have done to reduce mankind’s carbon footprint, you know they are onto something new and meaningful — both to man and nature.
Ariver filled with sewage, broken TVs, dead dogs and used needles or a clean, bird-luring oasis lined with indigenous plants? Most people could only see a polluted ribbon of water in Johannesburg’s Jukskei River but two pioneering women have set out to restore one of the city’s largest rivers.
Conservationist Romy Stander and artist Hannelie Coetzee want to tackle water pollution using research, green infrastructure and art in a model they hope can be replicated for other rivers across the country.
Working closely with the local community, the duo launched an initiative to remove alien invasive plants last December, with plans underway to build natural water filters to protect the river.
“Water is a reflection of society, and this one is toxic,” said Stander, who cofounded the charity Water for the Future with Coetzee.
Mining, agriculture, urbanization and pollution are adding to the rapidly decreasing quality of fresh water sources in South Africa, according to local water utility Rand Water.
“But it can recover and the pollution can eventually go away, to a certain degree” said Stander, in a nearby coffee shop, surrounded by a pile of creased maps, city plans and a frog book.
In South Africa, satellite imagery from the Norwegian Institute for Nature shows wealthier suburbs are 700 meters closer to public parks and have 9 percent more vegetation and 12 percent more tree cover than poorer areas.
“We want to create a green corridor filled with safe water and eco-art that communicates with people,” said Stander, who works on community projects with Nando’s, a restaurant chain that has funded some of the river rehabilitation.
The women’s project has been compared to the High Line Park in New York City, a 2.3-kilometer strip of greenery built on an old elevated railroad that runs along Manhattan’s West Side, she added.
Water for the Future is based at Victoria Yards, a former laundry factory in inner-city Johannesburg that now houses art studios, community vegetable gardens, a clinic, a creche and more, built alongside the Jukskei River.
Together with engineers, researchers, architects and scientists, Stander and Coetzee are trying to understand what can be done to fix the river permanently.
A monitoring station and a water quality sampling device were installed last September by Campbell Scientific, a scientific instrument provider, and SRK mining consultants, to gauge the river’s water quality and discharge.
This and other research has helped Water for the Future understand the impact of illegal sewage connections, collapsed stormwater drains and high rates of urbanization in the city that all put pressure on the river.
“What we have seen so far is that the water is full of toxins and it is frightening,” said Coetzee, adding that further water quality results will be available around March.
Adding to the river’s problems are invasive plants that grow alongside its banks and overflow into the water.
City officials did not respond to requests for comment but a report by the country’s ministry of environmental affairs highlighted how alien plants reduce water runoff by between 1,500 to 2,500 million cubic meters per year.
Water for the Future has been consulting with experts to understand what the invasive plants can be used for.
Alongside a stone-built canal by Victoria Yards, workers in yellow bibs sweated away in the sun as they cut the junglelike vegetation spilling into the river.
“For me, this is more important than what is being discussed in parliament,” said Sylvester Kumwenda, 48, one of the workers, holding a pick-axe.
“If we can heal our environment then our young ones will know what nature looks like, and that is priceless” said Kumwenda, one of about 30 local residents employed through the rehabilitation project.
A small wooden fence alongside the river is one idea Water for the Future is playing with, alongside turning the alien vegetation into biomass — natural fuel pellets used to produce electricity or heat.
Water for the Future co-designed and built an “eco-tree seat” with the city’s road maintenance company, Johannesburg Roads Agency, that involved cutting into the roadside pavement to form a circular structure.
It captures and harvests rainwater into the roots of a tree, around which people can sit.
“People shouldn’t have to climb a mountain to be in nature,” Coetzee said.
The eco-tree seat is one of many innovations Coetzee and Water for the Future are researching to improve sustainable drainage and manage water flow into urban rivers.
Coetzee worked with Timbuktu in the Valley aftercare center, where children in Victoria Yards were asked to draw how they feel about the environment.
One of the results pictured a crying cloud which was converted into a mosaic image now found throughout the neighborhood as a way of creating environmental awareness.
“The intention was to see if we could get the kids to water the tree without telling them,” said Coetzee.
“And the tree is growing so well, the kids feel encouraged and are taking ownership.”
Stander is focused on maintaining local residents’ involvement.
“We need to be very careful about how gentrification takes place,” said Stander, who has been engaging with landlords whose properties are alongside the river pilot site.
Despite initially being called “naive” by critics for their unconventional approach to restoring the site, Coetzee said it is important to think differently.
“It’s not just us, the French want to swim in the Seine after a century of banning it, and water warriors in Copenhagen want to build a natural pool in a canal. We have to convince people that these amazing things are possible,” said Coetzee.
Stander, who lives close to the river, enjoys driving around in her pick-up truck, chatting to people who live alongside the river and analyzing the invasive plants that keep springing up.
“Instead of cementing rivers underground we need to let them live again,” she said. “Just imagine how beautiful it could be.”
If we can heal our environment then our young ones will know what nature looks like, and that is priceless.
Sylvester Kumwenda Johannesburg worker