One of the key goals for MiaSci is for the building to serve as a leading example of energy efficiency and sustainable design. To support this goal, the Museum installed a weather station downtown at the new site in Museum Park, to collect data on rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiance and other variables. The project’s architects and engineers have been using these data to design a building that harnesses the renewable energy resources available at the site – sun, wind and water – to support MiaSci’s energy and educational goals.
The following link provide an overview of these real-time data:
The Museum is also making these data available to visitors, school groups, researchers and other professionals, and developing related web-based materials and activities. The first of these, the Solar Energy Challenge, allows visitors to explore solar energy as a source of power for their homes. Through this web-based activity, visitors try to make it through a typical day using only energy from the sun. They can choose how many solar panels to put on their home, and then turn various appliances on and off to see how much of their household energy need can be met by the selected system. Click the link below to try it out:
Take the Solar Energy Challenge!
The Solar Energy Challenge is the first component of an online Energy Portal being developed by the Museum, which when finished will provide access to data streams from not only the weather station but the Green Roof Demonstration Project as well as the solar array and vertical axis wind-turbine to be installed as demonstration exhibits at the current facility in the next few months.
