Air, Architecture + Other Climates

[57.0°to 71.0° N : Norway] - 2019/20
John Cook, Ben Pollock + Laura Nica

Helen Windsor

The Seeping Landscape, Methane Harvesting Infrastructure & Human Infrastructure

The Seeping City

Perma-Power Plant & Sustainable Community
Øvre Dividal National Park, Norway

Permafrost is a hidden phenomena that exists at the earth's polar regions. It is defined as soil, rock and sediment that has been frozen for at least two years. My work highlights thawing permafrost as a key indicator of and contributor to global warming. I focused on the opportunities of methane gas seeps from permafrost soil that lies beneath thermokarst landscapes.

The Seeping City was founded in 2035 as a solution to the coal, oil and gas extraction cap rules outlined in The Global Fossil Fuel Conservation Act of 2030. Situated in Norway’s continuous permafrost area, it is the world’s first perma-power plant that harvests naturally occurring methane seeps from thawing permafrost ground and converts it into energy. Due to global warming, permafrost thaw is occurring at exceptional rates, so it is important that we capture the methane to prevent it contributing to further temperature rise. We are the first test site of its kind for generating perma-power and due to its success as a renewable energy resource we are working with companies in Siberia and Alaska to expand globally and harvest methane seeps there too. The city has a power plant, greenhouse, town centre and housing communities. Methane is cleaned, combusted, and converted into a new form of renewable energy called perma-power. Residents of the community work and live in the carbon neutral city, that is designed to adapt to the unpredictable landscape that is a consequence of permafrost thaw.