In everyday city living, we are surrounded by waste products from our urban infrastructures – heat waste from air conditioners, light pollution emitted from shop windows, vibration caused by heavy traffic and the loud wails of sirens. But these structural leakages are, in essence, a multitude of free power outlets for anyone wishing to collect them, because light, noise, vibration and heat can all be turned back into usable energy.

Neighbourhood Satellites Energy Harvests examines the practical as well as theoretical possibilities of an alternative, decentralized supply of energy by asking: How can citizens use these surplus energy supplies? What would local micro-power-networks, where free energy can be collected, distributed and exchanged, look like?

These questions are approached through different explorations: a set of harvesters that can be carried along, windmills installed at a metro station to collect streams of waste air, interviews with other thinkers and makers, workshops for building light pollution harvesters and instigate discussion, and DIY kits with instructions for everyone to make their own harvesters.

The city map identifies energy leaks in the urban landscape that can be tapped into, such as sound pollution from sirens, vibration surplus of construction sites, streams of waste air from ventilation systems, wastewater run offs etc.