The Native Events team are delighted to be involved in ‘Línte na Farraige’, a creative project designed to indicate projected sea level rise on the impact of storm surges around Ireland’s coastline, in the hope of inspiring climate action.
Light installations will be set up at three historic coastal locations around the country, with the light level indicating predicated sea levels during a storm surge by the year 2150, under a moderate climate change scenario. The installations by Finnish artists Timo Aho and Pekka Niittyvirta were developed by the Línte na Farraige project team, with heights based on emissions scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6 (AR6), and from Irish tide gauge data.
Línte na Farraige renewably powered lights at the Spanish Arch in Galway, launched last October.
Native Events were tasked with scoping the energy consumption for the LED light strips and providing a renewable energy source to meet the demand. Native Events Energy & Transitions Project Manager, Stefano Semprini, said:
“The challenge for Native was to optimise the power source, to select the appropriate technology, as well as ensuring the lights have sufficient power to roughly run twice per day, with the rising tide. Solar PV panels and battery packs were chosen because, at the scale of these installations, the alternatives – such as small-scale, vertical-axis wind turbines – were not feasible.”
The Línte na Farraige light installations will be at the Spanish Arch in Galway, Wexford Harbour and the Martello Tower in Blackrock, Dublin.
Dr Zoë Roseby, Research Fellow in Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, is one of the scientists involved in the project. She said:
“We have chosen to place these striking installations in locations of local significance to promote cohesion and action among communities. The goal of the project is to provoke a dialogue around rising sea levels and to demonstrate that the future is still in our hands, as the rate and amount of future sea level rise depends – largely – on our greenhouse gas emissions.
“Línte na Farraige aims to encourage individuals to consider how collective societal action can mitigate climate change and sea level rise, to ultimately inspire a more sustainable and resilient future.”
PV solar panels at the Línte na Farraige site in Wexford, launched last year.
Línte na Farraige is an art and science collaboration involving scientists from Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University, the Climate Action Regional Offices (CAROs) and Local Authorities, as well as designers from Algorithm and Native Events. Línte na Farraige is a recipient of the inaugural Creative Climate Action fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.
For more information visit Línte na Farraige and the Creative Ireland Programme.
