Golden Gate Energy
Golden Gate Energy explores the transition from non-renewable to renewable energy, highlighting the challenges of updating the current energy grid and how the way energy infrastructure exists in urban landscapes could evolve over time.
METHODOLOGY: STEEP, AEIOU, Speculative Design, Secondary Research
ROLES:
Thomas Euyang - Designer, Researcher
Xinling Wang - Designer, Researcher
TingTing Dong - Designer, Researcher
This project was done with PG&E as an imagined client.
As we transition to renewable energy, the real challenge isn’t generating power but transmitting it. Renewable grids demand new transmission lines to carry power vast distances and endure extreme weather, yet funding and approval are mired in bureaucracy.
If we can't overcome these obstacles, what innovative energy systems might we see rise in their place?
To arrive at this question the team iterated multiple scenarios based on secondary research before arriving at The End of the Grid.
With the landscape framed, we explored a revolutionary energy structure. Our goal was to understand a how the world might change if the journey from power plant to home was drastically different.
What happens if our centralized grid collapses? How would energy generation and transmission evolve? How might San Francisco transform? And how would home life adapt?
To answer these questions, we started creating three companies focusing on energy generation, energy transmission, and home life. My focus was on Energy Generation while my teammates took on the other two topics.
We formed a consortium of companies: Golden Gate Energy, NRG Trucks, and Ele Apartment Group and a collaborative pitch deck as if this consortium was lobbying the San Francisco government to fund/subsidize/approve their vision.
What would an energy independent San Francisco look like? How might we distribute power without power lines? And what if energy generation became a central part of home life?
The final iteration of the project was a retrospective on San Francisco’s new landscape in the form of a website.
The world we built is a protopia - while greenhouse gas emissions are lower, generating electricity is inconspicuosly integrated into the urban and natural landscape.
Through illustrating this imperfect result, our hope is to generate critical thought into how we might grow more thoughtfully into our energy future.