This is wandering into the area of proof of concept rather than pure carbon reduction (although we are doing the sums to see how much carbon output we actually saved)

In the autumn of 2007, radiohead management were contacted by a man called Jim Breen, he runs a company called Mobile Solar Power

They have a product, a very good product, that uses solar panels to charge batteries then inverters to deliver mains voltage electricity.   Developed for the Californian building trade (lots of sun), their production unit is mounted in a trailer, pulled behind a van, charged while on the move then is able to supply enough power to drive the tools and, presumably, boil the kettle. (power required 32amp 1ph).

I was asked by the band to investigate Jim's product and see if it could be used on tour. Biofuels have their issues and ultimately, non combustion forms of energy need to be found.
We talked and we talked. In the beginning, I wanted 600amp 3ph. (the LED lighting rig had not be conceived at this time) and a system that could be used in the UK*. Many conversations were had on the topic of 3ph power and the reduction of the total load, but needless to say, we persevered and came up with many design concepts (all of which, unfortunately, were dismissed on technical and ultimately financial grounds)

Not wishing to be beaten, I enlisted the help of Sid. A touring sound guy and some what an expert in site power. Initially I had proposed running the sound off the system, it being the smaller of the two loads, but to this day are still unable to verify how large the spikes in the demand are, and if the system would cope. By this time the LED lighting concept was well underway and our plan moved over to building a system for that.

Using the products that Mobile Solar Power had proven, we came up with a design that could deliver 100A 3ph for 5hrs, but would require a solar array the size of a football pitch to charge it in time (less than 24hrs) Unexpectedly, the other issue was weight. A battery this size would weight approximately 8,000kg. Fine for a permanent installation, but unworkable for temporary and touring usage.

With the new design parameters hashed out - component weight limit of 2,000kg, 200A 3ph output, 4.5hrs of autonomy at full load, and easily set up - we moved forward.

Conceding that solar power was never going to work on this scale, a slightly different tack was taken. Could we build a battery that would power the show from load in to load out? It still has to be charged, but with nearly half the venues on the tour being supplied by grid electricity, we could charge in one city, then use the battery in the next, allowing one of the generators never to be turned on.

And that's what we did.

The result was a system made from 16x 2,000kg Battery strings running at 600v, in to a pair of paralleled Statron UPS panels.  Due to weight limits this was split across two trucks, that also carried lighting and set for the show.

It all looked good on paper, but until we actually got it out there and proved the system we still had the generator on site (switched off) as back up - we could not afford to lose the lighting and video during the show. I'm pleased to say that the calculations were spot on and it performed exactly as predicted. Enabling the touring lighting and video system to be run from the battery for the whole of the load in, show and load out.

Inserting a battery in the chain provides solutions to several problems.
  
Charging from an off site grid source and then providing stand alone power
Covering low power demands during off peak usage, then being charged from the spare capacity of a generator during peak usage
Providing for fluctuating power demands, removing the requirement for oversized idling generators, then using a small efficiently sized power source to charge
And not least - the system provides clean constant electricity with a extremely large battery backup (something that came into its own on more than one occasion)

Any alternative power source requires a storage medium for its electricity. The next step is to research charging methods that will provide enough electricity to complete a charge in a useful amount of time. I suspect it will result in a combination of wind, solar and even hydrogen.

I would like to thank Sid, Howard, Vince, Chris, Ed J and Duncan for working tirelessly in the quest to get this project of the ground. We ran into some teething problems at the beginning of the tour, it turns out that although the products are off the shelf, no-one had put together something of this scale before.
The supportive yet cynical lighting crew nicknamed it 'Neveready', but it was, and the 1st London show saw the lights and video running of the battery for the whole day.


*as I am sure many of you know, radiohead have a knack of attracting the
rain to their outdoor shows