A big project with an estimated USD 8 million price tag called the Garden of Life is taking root in Bali.
Usually, mega-sized expensive, ambitious projects in Bali like the Benoa Bay reclamation and Trump’s six-star Tanah Lot resort make us want to throw up in our mouths, but plans for an eco-monument in Tabanan have us impressed and cautiously optimistic for the future of our Island of the Gods.
The plan is to build a 4000 meter-squared multifunctional eco-sculpture in the shape of the geometric Flower of Life adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Jatiluwih. When realized, the sculpture would be the biggest crowd-funded energy field on earth, comprised of 429,822 solar power producing glass hexagons, according to the Garden of Life Foundation’s official website.
The hexagons should be able to generate up to 1 MW of solar energy, which will partially be re-fed into the Balinese energy grid to help supply the needs of the rural population, the foundation says.
In addition to helping provide clean energy, the place is ultimately supposed to serve as a major tourist attraction, from which revenues will go to notable local organizations and charities “working towards a better future for Bali”, including Bumi Sehat, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, Soleman, Muntigunung, L’Wellness, and Yayasan Karang Lestari Permuteran.
The plan is to start building by the end of 2016 and the foundation says it expects to be fully operational by the beginning of 2018. Based on their website’s stats, they have achieved 16 percent of their fundraising goal, at the time of writing.
Watch their video (despite its eerie robot-voice narrator) for a more in depth view of the project, what they hope to accomplish and how, along with some pretty amazing visuals:
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