Cities 100 years into the future will tap technology in new ways to maintain power during natural disasters. But some bright minds are already brainstorming about how that process will work.
And they're still in middle school.
Students from Justice Page Middle School in south Minneapolis traveled to Washington in February to present their vision of a 22nd century power grid to judges of the Future City competition. The school represented Minnesota at the annual national competition for the second year, after beating 47 others to win the regional competition in January at Dakota County Technical College.
Theirs is more than just a research project, however. Teams from around the world spend weeks developing their proposals and building intricate scale models to illustrate how their vision would work.
"It's … so cool to work with people who are this smart, and to think about all these things that you didn't know about before," said Ryan Rowell, 13, one of the Page team members. "I did not know about mechanical energy or microgrids before this."
The Page students chose Maui, Hawaii, as the setting for their project, due to the variety of natural disasters that could occur there. They dubbed it "The Lost Phoenix."
They equipped roofs in the city with solar panels which powered a spinning ring that kept rotating — and generating power — after the sun had set. In the event of power failure, microgrids powering each neighborhood would keep the lights on and send extra energy to areas without power.
Rather than speculate about technological advancements, the students opted for a more practical approach.
