African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power ($80 solar panel made in China)

As the oil and gas companies control our energy the world moves on without us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/science/earth/25fossil.html?ref=africa

if enough people start getting off the grid, it'll become a fad. Then there's no stopping it.

I might be looking at that later on this year...and I live in Eugene.

PB

There was a thread about it here a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1037773

:thumbsup:

PB

Hope you're able to do so as well! :toast:

We are buying our house from my mom at a really good rate and have a chance to get a little extra money for new windows, weather proofing and, we think, we'll go ahead and put in solar.

I have about 8 Sunforce panels, A Sunforce wind turbine, two HQRP and two BP 50 watt mono-crystalline panels, and 6 100 Amp Hour deep cycle batteries. I'm a long way off my target 3KW, but that's the nice thing about systems like these, you just keep adding to them until you're producing the power you need.

I've got my eye on a Honeywell 2500 watt brushless wind turbine. At $6500.00, they're spendy, but they can produce power in a slight breeze.

On the usage side, I've replaced incandescent bulbs with LED high-efficiency bulbs. I can light my property at night for about 100 watts.

I have an array of generators as well, ranging from 1000 to 3500 watts that I used for charging batteries and power tools... and making coffee. :)

in this country (at least most of us can't). Our energy needs are so far beyond those of other countries, especially in Africa. Hell, there are people here who wouldn't be able to figure out how to shave without electricity. The answer still comes down to using less.

or 40 percent of our energy from wind and sun in the next generation...added with those water treatement plants that can power a small town. All of these can add up!! The army recently had units go out that were almost entirely solar powered--radios, lights, everything.

I'm kind of excited to see little affordable products popping up...once there are products there will be interested businesses.

I think we might be getting close to that tipping point!

This is a great article and a great concept. And imagine how it feels for those people in the huts.

and propane products--those things are HEAVY to pack around.

I think, one of these day, they'll figure out a way to collect solar power in paint. Cars, houses will all be collecting power.

I want to be the generation that forced the change!

Actually looks like a solar oven? cooker?

--imm

Yes, they can be a simple as cardboard and tinfoil. They can also be much more elaborate.

You'd rather carry a solar panel (with inverter)?

of an army unit that has some new solar set up. They were out for several weeks and only used a couple gallons of diesel. (usually they used 30-50 gallons) It excites me that things are starting to move in that direction.

What I'd really like is a solar panel that would bring in enough power to charge hybrid car. I don't have to be off the grid but it sure would be great to almost stop using gasoline.

Boyz are doing everything they can to NOT help us get off the grid.

What would Utility Companies do??? Charge us for being off their grid!

Seriously, a lot of electric utilities are offerring incentives to install solar on your house. You might be pleasantly surprised.

then what? When I get solar, I won't sell my extra power back to the Utility. I don't want them to know I exist. Solar power on an individual basis takes their profits away....

Think about it.

For one thing, many states have Renewable rnergy Standards(an "RPS") which mandates that the electric companies get a certain percentage of the electricity from renewable sources or pay penalties. In California, I believe the requirement is 33% by 2020, but don't quote me - I might have the year wrong.

As for "taking their profits away", it's not going to happen. In many cases, the utility does not even own generation, so you supplying your own from solar panels doesn't hit their bottom line. They still get the monthly fixed charge and they get a guaranteed rate of return on their equity, so if they take in less because they aren't delivering as much power to you, they'll likely get an adjustment (increase) in rates in their next rate case. As for selling power back to them, I believe that would be unlikely unless you installed a large (expensive) system and even then, what difference would it make? They know your electrical consumption better than you do and they're not idiots. If your consumption drops substantially, they'll figure out why (the panels on your roof would be a dead give away).

To have a real impact, you would have to go completely off the grid. It would cost you more than staying on grid and you would probably find it pretty inconvenient at times.

I've been in the electric power business for 28 years. My recommendation? Get educated. Find out what's going on with solar energy in your state and with your utility company. Again, you might be pleasantly surprised.

electric power business for 28 years, I seem to read a bit of a bias.

I've visited 'off the grid' homes. It's feasible and the inhabitants were not uncomfortable or in any type of distress.

Of course it is a rural life....one I enjoy. Fewer people telling you what you should do and how you should feel.

I have yet to be 'pleasantly surprised' by what a Corporation/Utility can do for me. My bills simply escalate and the service declines.

Who is your electric utility?

as well.

For example, the biggest maker of photovoltaic panels in the US is owned by True North Partners, an investment arm of the Walton (Walmart) family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Solar

US windpower = GE.

Similar capital interests own the majority of renewables in other countries as well.

;)

Corporate Boyz haven't purchased the sun and wind yet.

Community Energy, Solar Gardens a Growing Trend.

a really interesting book, you should read it

in my array. They work just as well as the others, and are actually constructed with decent quality material.

Thanks for the link.

I mean "cheap" in the full meaning of the word - inexpensive. It is a cheap Chinese system, that's what it is. I posted it for what it is.

centralized energy sources where they are the provider making money continuously over time.

These individual cells throw a wrench in that system.

for that price? 36 billion divided by 80 = 450 MILLION and maybe we could MAKE some of them in the USA?

Whew. When our lights go out at my house we are so stuck.

a fridge, my computer and all the other amenities we enjoy in the USA. Maybe you can put a solar system together that can do that, but it would be very expensive and a net loser compared with buying your electricity from a third party.

then the solar panels will have seemed like a pretty good idea that you missed out on.

Coal and nuclear are going to be the backbone of our electrical generation mix for the forseeable future. Renewable energy has its place, but it won't be taking a lead role for decades, if ever.

We don't have a storage technology available to make large scale reliance on solar or wind energy practical when the resource is unavailable (like at night or when the wind stops blowing). They don't have one in Africa either. That means that you have little or no electricity at night - I'll pass, thanks.

"... Solar Two used molten salt, a combination of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate, as an energy storage medium instead of oil or water as with Solar One. This helped in energy storage during brief interruptions in sunlight due to clouds. The molten salt also allowed the energy to be stored in large tanks for future use such as night time - Solar Two had sufficient capacity to continue running for up to three hours after the sun had set." (with some R+D that could no doubt be extended, but those dollars go to subsidize an industry that has the capability to render large areas of land uninhabitable for generations.)



"We're proud of Solar Two's success as it marks a significant milestone in the development of large-scale solar energy projects," said then U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
"This technology has been successfully demonstrated and is ready for commercialization. From 1994 to 1999, the Solar Two project demonstrated the ability of solar molten salt technology to provide long-term, cost effective thermal energy storage for electricity generation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solar_Project

And while you're "very comfortable with those risks, thank you" you are asking future generations to accept the consequences if something goes wrong, like Japan. This is an outrageous thing to foist upon your descendent's.

You'll find that the technology (concentrating solar) only works in areas of high Direct Normal Incidence ("DNI"). This means you're limited to areas in the southwest such as Arizona and the Central Valley in California. I evaluated a project in west Texas with similar technology and found the DNI was not high enough to make it work. This technology (along with Parabolic Troughs and Dishes, requires 1000's of acres of land, so you can't use it as a distributed system - you're stuck with areas in the middle of a desert.

The technology does work and promises to provide some storage, but the requirements to use it are too restrictive for it to have widespread use.

... releasing a humongous cloud of toxins. Ooops.

The plant was never more than a shiny thing to distract from the experimental coal gasification plant next door.

In California the push has always been to build power lines connecting to coal plants in states where politics is more favorable to coal. Since the eighties the push to build these power lines has always worn the sheep skin of solar and wind development.

The low capacity factors of solar and wind projects attracts fossil fuel developers like flies. A power line supporting wind and solar plants isn't used at anything near full capacity most of the time and this unused capacity can be very profitably filled by fossil fuel generated power.

future generations


there is also new hydroelectric power using waves and the tides to help generate electricity

and there are ways of storing the solar power to be used at night. Using the solar generated electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen to later be used in a fuel cell is the most environmentally friendly (although not the most efficient).



Being stuck with technology that has been polluting our planet since around 1900 just isn't acceptable to most people.

"and all the other amenities we enjoy in the USA..."

And I believe that particular sentiment is one of the major reasons we are currently in the predicament we are. However, I am fully aware that many Americans are too invested in convenience to make the necessary degrees of change for a greater good.

That solves completely the night time energy use. And it is not hard or overly expensive to put together a system that can handle modern American life.

soon the 'future' is I don't know, probably sooner than most people expect.

all over the developing world.

Thanks for the thread, Snoutport.