EnviromediaNews

The green stadium we could have had

Taiwan's electric snake

A couple of months before the first sod was turned for the 2010 Green Point Stadium in early 2007, construction began on a similar project on the other side of the world.

Taiwan’s new 55,000-seater multipurpose venue was completed in 28 months and cost less than R1.5 billion.

Green Point, which will have a smaller capacity when the temporary seating is removed after the World Cup, is still under construction after more than 30 months, during which time the budget has soared from R1.2.billion to R4.5 billion.

But what really hurts is that Taiwan’s stadium is a flagship of green design and technology, able to produce all its own electricity when in use, and to sell its surplus to the neighbours when idle.

Not just that, but it is so breathtakingly beautiful it makes Green Point look like a chamber pot.

Designed by the visionary Japanese architect Toyo Ito after an international competition, the roof curls around the pitch like a snake, glittering with 8,844 photovoltaic scales.

According to Taiwanese officials, the stadium will generate 1.14 million kilowatt hours a year, preventing the release of 660 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

Excess power will be sold, adding more than a R1 million to the stadium’s annual income.

So why couldn’t we have one like that?

In fact, why couldn’t all five of our extravagant new super-stadia have been built to double as clean power stations?

Because nobody thought about it, that’s why. Or if they did, no-one with any authority listened to them. It was all about size and spectacle and outdoing the Germans.

Only once the designs were signed off was there a belated attempt tack on various “environmental enhancements”. Now, six months before kick off, they start talking about “green goals”.

It’s too late.

It is now estimated that the 2010 World Cup will be the dirtiest ever, contributing 2.75 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The only way to do anything about that now is to offset it. It would have helped if all our new stadia were able to generate clean, free electricity. Instead, they will add to the problem by increasing demand for the dirty stuff.

So much for a legacy. – enviromedianews