Solar Powered Website: Uptime for 2020

In 2020, our solar powered website obtained an uptime of 95%, meaning that it was offline for 444 hours or 20 days. Unsurprisingly, most of the downtime is concentrated in the winter months.

The graph above (click to enlarge) shows battery storage capacity in relation to the weather in Barcelona from January to December 2020. Yellow is sunny, grey is cloudy, blue is rain. From May to November, we were online without interruption for almost 6 months.

The data were collected and visualised by Roel Roscam Abbing and David Benqué.

April 7, 2021 by kris de decker Filed Under: Internet, Solar

Scaling of Greenhouse Crop Production During Nuclear Winter

During a global catastrophe such as a nuclear winter, in which sunlight and temperatures are reduced across every latitude, to maintain global agricultural output it is necessary to grow some crops under structures. [Read more…]

January 3, 2020 by kris de decker Filed Under: Farming, Solar

Off-Grid, Solar-Powered, Zero-Battery Refrigerator

Joey Hess has designed, built and tested an off-grid, solar powered fridge, with no battery bank. Using an inexpensive chest freezer with a few modifications, the fridge retains cold overnight and through rainy periods. The set-up consists of a standard chest freezer, an added thermal mass, an inverter, and computer control. He writes: [Read more…]

September 1, 2019 by kris de decker Filed Under: Batteries, Cooling, DIY, Food storage, Random, Refrigeration, Solar

“Daylight Drive” DC Solar Power at the Living Energy Farm

Reader Goran Christiansson sends us a link to Living Energy Farm, a research and community project in Virginia, USA. Most notable is their use of “Daylight Drive” DC solar power without batteries for workshop tools — reminiscent of the ideas outlined in How to run the economy on the weather. Also of note is their choice for less efficient but more durable Nickel Iron batteries for lighting. [Read more…]

July 14, 2019 by kris de decker Filed Under: Batteries, DIY, Low-tech living, Random, Solar

Solar Concentrator with Inflatable Mirrors

We are reaching an important milestone in the Testfield: the high-precision membrane mirror that we have been working on for the last two years, is standing. A team within the technology group has designed and built a prototype solar concentrator by innovating and developing the inflatable membrane mirror technology first introduced by father and son Hans and Jürgen Kleinwächter several decades ago. The present advances are the result of a dedicated team within Tamera working in cooperation with Jürgen Kleinwächter, SunOrbit (Germany) and supporters in India and Australia.

Our prototype mirror uses 0.1mm thick reflective polymer films inflated with air pressure, over a lightweight aluminium frame, achieving high optical precision cheaply and with very low embodied energy. It has an effective optical aperture of 4m2, concentration of over 1000 times, reaching over 1000 degrees Celsius, and has applications ranging from round-the-clock cooking with storage, through ceramics, metalwork and lime burning for waterproof clay buildings, to photo-catalytic fuel production from water and CO2. Future concentrators will undoubtedly take the technology further.

Many challenges in the components and sub-systems have been overcome over the last two years. Now we will start to see how the system really functions as a whole. We have progressed from unstable wooden experiments to a simple, lightweight aluminium framework, developed a deflectometric mirror analysis technique using computational photography, built a tool to weld flouropolymers together (basically welding Teflon to Teflon), designed and fabricated a dual-axis tracking construction, and invented a robust technique to evenly tension membrane films. We are looking forward to testing and tuning the complete system. System tests will start now, as we continue to complete the details.

Quoted from: High-precision Membrane Mirror Research in the SolarVillage Testfield of Tamera, August 2016.

Previously: The bright future of solar powered factories.

January 29, 2017 by kris de decker Filed Under: Solar

Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker

gravity powered solar tracker

The SunSaluter is an ultra low-cost, passive, single-axis solar panel rotator (called a tracker) designed for the developing world. Using only the power of gravity and water, the SunSaluter enables a solar panel to follow the sun throughout the day, boosting efficiency by 30% and producing four liters of clean drinking water.

It is 30 times less expensive than conventional motorized solar panel rotators (which use complex electronics), much more reliable, and consumes no electricity itself. With improved efficiency, fewer solar panels are needed, and the overall cost per watt of solar energy is reduced.

The SunSaluter features an adjustable design which allows it to integrate with any solar panel – no special tools needed. The solar panels are mounted on the rotating frame, a weight is suspended from one end, and a special waterclock is suspended from the other. As the water empties and the container gets lighter, the panel slowly rotates. The user can set the rate at which the waterclock empties, which controls the SunSaluter’s rate of rotation.

The SunSaluter also contains a water purifier so that each day it produces four liters of clean drinking water. By combining energy and water collection into one simple device, the SunSaluter improves consistent usage of the purifier, which is the Achilles heel of clean water programs. SunSaluters are available for purchase anywhere in the world as a DIY-kit, or in India as prefabricated systems.

More information: SunSaluter. Via Makeshift, who made a video about the technology.

September 23, 2015 by kris de decker Filed Under: DIY, Gravity Powered Machines, Random, Solar