At its Committee meeting on Monday 24 May, Sydney City Council recommended a go-ahead for installation of the public art work, Earth v Sky.
This is the third of the three public artworks commissioned by the City of Sydney for Glebe, the first two being the Glebe Public School fence and the audio reactivation of the Wireless House.
Earth v Sky, by artist Allan Giddy, involves lighting the fig trees at the waterfront end of Glebe Point Road in complementary colours to the western sky at sunset. The lighting display will last only for the period of sunset.
Integral to the artist’s vision for the work is the proposal to power the lighting by alternative energy. To achieve this, a domestic scale wind turbine will be installed near the entrance to Johnston’s Creek.
Some concern had been expressed about the effect of the wind turbine on birdlife, and Council commissioned a report from the Australian Museum, which found that the effect would be minimal. Council has also appointed the Museum to monitor and report on any adverse effect on birdlife during the first year of operation.
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To be technically correct, Earth v Sky does take fossil-fuel-based power from the grid but this is more than offset by the power fed into the grid by the wind turbine at the southern end of the park.
Earth v Sky installation does not rely on fossil fuels. The wind turbine located at the southern end of Bicentennial Park captures energy and feed back in the grid.
We tend to still ignore the renewable energy and are happy with the fossil fuels, it’s not only unsustainable, but is also spoiling the environment slowly. We should support each initiative that tries to make sustainable energy generation.