Musclepower: At The Land, a "laboratory for self-sustainable development" founded by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija outside Chiang Mai, Thailand, a new experiment in alternative power is in the works. Artist Philippe Parreno is creating a Battery House on this off-the-grid rice farm; in order to power laptop computers and, hopefully, host electronic music events, the house will transform the muscle power of water buffalos into electrical energy (originally, the project called for elephants):

In front of them is a structure made of still-inert plastic leaves holding a 20-tonne concrete counterweight, hanging vertically like clothes in a European miners’ locker room. Their job: to lift them patiently, one by one, using a system of cables and pulleys, moving with animal slowness. Thus muscular energy (2,000 w/h) is transferred, stored and released, transformed, by means of a dynamo, into electrical energy. This endless cycle from elephant to structure to gravity and then to energy compresses or frees interior space, in rhythm with the occupation of the Land and the movement of the counterweight platform.

The Land also features other alternative-energy experiments, including biogas developed by the Danish art collective Superflex.

Meanwhile, in Africa, the boundless energy of children provides the power for a new water management system. The Play Pump harnesses the energy of kids playing on a roundabout (or merry-go-round) to transport underground water into holding tanks—around 1400 liters per hour. As the inventor's website says, "Playing on a roundabout has always been fun for children, so there is never a shortage of 'volunteers'."