NUDES plans an undulating 'solar mountain' for burning man's fly ranch

an undulating structure made from recycled timber and clad in solar photovoltaic panels. that’s what NUDES proposes with ‘solar mountain’, one of 10 shortlisted projects for burning man‘s 3,800-acre fly ranch in the nevada desert.

images courtesy of NUDES

the organizers of burning man envision fly ranch as a permanent, off-grid space in the desert. to create its infrastructure, they partnered with land art generator initiative (LAGI) to hold a multi-disciplinary design challenge – LAGI 2020 fly ranch. from hundreds of applicants, NUDES‘ solar mountain is one of the shortlisted entries that will move to the next stage of prototyping.

solar mountain aims to generate approximately 300,000 kWh annually

solar mountain is designed as an interactive installation on the land of fly ranch, which is home to dozens of hot and cold springs, three geysers, hundreds of acres of wetlands, dozens of animal species, and more than 100 types of plants. the undulating form of the mountain is inspired by the surroundings and aims to seamlessly blend into the landscape. it hopes to become the infrastructure for a unified community and a space for people to connect. with this in mind, the narrative behind the design is divided into three parts: ‘grow energy’, ‘interact’, and ‘play’.

the project explores the concept of ‘grow’ (energy); ‘play’ (recreate) & ‘interact’ (community)

solar mountain is conceived as a modular, pre-fab renewable energy infrastructure. the project consists of four units, with each unit measuring 30m in length, between 5m-30m in width, and with a maximum height of 15m. the structure also offers relief to the community from the strong summer sun.

solar mountain is a modular, scalable design system fabricated from recycled wood

each unit consists of 182 solar panels of 300 watt capacity, which generate 1.2kWh/day. NUDES estimates that the total clean energy that can be harvested from the four units containing 728 solar panels per day is 873kWh. this means solar mountain has the capacity to generate 318,645 kWh annually, which can be used to meet site requirements and other activities. the structure is fabricated using recycled wood and is designed using net-zero principles, in the hopes of addressing larger issues such as climate change and global warming.