Zero Net Energy - January 2016 edition

Greenbuild Unity Home - prefab, affordable net-zero home can be built in less than three days to LEED v4 Platinum and net zero-energy standards and with the largest collection of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certified building products ever used in a residential project.
http://inhabitat.com/net-zero-unity-home-is-a-solar-powered-prefab-that-pops-up-in-just-3-days/
http://greenbuildexpo.com/greenbuildunityhome

zHome:  the first net zero energy townhome complex in the United States (built in 2011 in Issaquah, WA) with benchmarks of net zero energy use, a 70% reduction in water use, a 90% construction recycling rate and the use of only low- and non-toxic materials among other specifications
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/11/23/washington-based-zhome-sets-national-net-zero-precedent/
http://www.builtgreen.net/library/zhomewhitepaper.pdf

Net Zero Energy Buildings Technical Reports
http://logdd.co/pdf/net-zero-energy-buildings-technical-report.html

DOE's A Common Definition for Zero Energy Buildings
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/09/f26/bto_common_definition_zero_energy_buildings_093015.pdf

Presentations from Building Carbon Zero California 2015
http://www.co2zeroca.org

Net zero 1910 school to lofts conversion in Amsterdam
http://www.opumo.com/magazine/ons-dorp-amsterdam-loft-conversion/

Architecture at Zero 2015 winners
http://www.gabreport.com/2015/11/architecture-at-zero-2015-winners

Zero Net Energy Roadmap for local governments (California)
https://energycenter.org/zne

Zero net energy building controls report
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1crmcXoJe0MI4J8E4KLp1lLURr2Ms9F4odN0KJn_-rzU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Market Data:  Zero Net Energy Homes (paid access only it seems)
http://www.navigantresearch.com/research/market-data-zero-net-energy-homes

Zero net energy laboratories
http://www.labconco.com/news/zero-net-energy-labs-sustainability-for-laborato

Seattle region near net zero community (including one HERS -1 rated, net positive house)
http://www.gizmag.com/dwell-development-new-rainier-vista/40916/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=bae36ce106-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-bae36ce106-91990261

From energy efficiency lighting expert Fred Davis:
http://www.zerohomes.org/positive-energy-homes/
http://www.netpositiveconference.org/ - February 18-19, 2016 in San Diego, CA

Sidmore Owings and Merrill build a net zero energy school in Staten Island, NYC's first
http://www.som.com/projects/ps_62_the_kathleen_grimm_school_for_leadership_and_sustainability

Zero Net Energy

Zero net energy is a growing body of practice in which buildings produce all the energy they consume.  It is the application of high efficiency construction in combination with renewable energy, usually solar or geothermal.  Sometimes it is also called net zero energy building.

I began to collect links to various zero net energy building projects around the world back in 2013 soon after, in the story I heard, Cambridge City Councillor Minka Van Beuzekom  proposed it as a building standard for a large development MIT is planning in East Cambridge.  That idea didn't fly (the development is part of an ecodistrict instead, as I understand it) but did lead to a task force which has prepared a path to zero net energy standards in the city.
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Climate/NetZeroTaskForce

The EU has adopted the building energy target of nearly zero and all new public buildings must be nearly zero-energy by 2018 with all new buildings, public or private, constructed to nearly zero-energy standards by the end of 2020.
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/buildings/nearly-zero-energy-buildings

CA has a 2020 zero net energy goal "focused on new residential construction, including single-family and low-rise multifamily (3 stories or less) buildings, as well as low and moderate income housing within these categories."
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Energy+Efficiency/Zero+Net+Energy+Buildings.htm

The knowledge and materials to build buildings that are comfortable without outside energy inputs through advances in energy efficiency and energy production on site have made zero net energy buildings practical and affordable.  They will only become more so as time goes on, examples accumulate, and experience grows.

Since we build about a million new residential units a year, nearly 1% of the units available, these changes in the way we shelter ourselves will have increasingly significant effects on our energy usage in the years and decades after 2020 in, at least, Cambridge, CA, and the EU.

July 12, 2013

http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building.php?building_id=454
Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China 71 floor zero net energy skyscraper

Maybe some of the ideas will work in Kendall Square and other areas of Cambridge.

And then there's also these:
http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10022
UC Davis West Village 130-acre development for about 3,000 people in 662 apartments and 343 single-family houses

http://www.springleafboulder.com/
Zero net energy neighborhood in the US, being built near Boulder, CO - hat tip inhabitant

http://www.dkahn.com/geos.html
Zero net energy neighborhood in Arvada, CO

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/realestate/commercial/walgreen-builds-a-zero-net-energy-store.html
Walgreens zero net energy store

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2010/05/nzn-20100505.html
The Net-Zero Neighborhood: Advanced Energy Storage and Highly Efficient Photovoltaics Take Transportation Off the Gasoline Grid and Residential Off the Electric Grid

July 18, 2013

article on status of US zero net energy building
http://autodesk.typepad.com/bpa/2013/07/early-energy-simulation-dont-design-your-zero-energy-building-building-energy-analysis.html

"Getting To Zero 2012 Status Update: A First Look at the Costs and Features of Zero Energy Commercial Buildings"
http://newbuildings.org/getting-zero-2012-update

The largest of the buildings mentioned is the NREL Research Support Facility with 360,000 ft2 and five or six stories.

August 4, 2013

20 story PassivHaus building in Vienna
http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/passivhaus-aint-no-house-its-20-storey-building.html
https://www.oegnb.net/upload/file/FORUM_Raiffeisen_0413_025-026-1.pdf - article in German
http://www.viennareview.net/news/ideas-and-trends/raiffeisens-upward-sustainability

November 12, 2013

Architecture Zero
http://architectureatzero.com/2013/11/08/prime-cut/

March 19, 2014

Ecocity Frameworks and Standards
http://www.ecocitystandards.org


May 12, 2014
Two Positive Net Energy Buildings
Zero Net/Positive Net Energy Retrofit in Norway
http://snohetta.com/project/40-powerhouse-kjorbo

Elithis Tower, 10 story zero net/positive net energy office and retail building in Dijon, France
http://www.innovapedia.org/home/innova-green/elithis-tower-remarkable-energy-efficient-structure/

June 13, 2014
Aktivhaus
http://planetsave.com/2014/06/10/tallest-german-residential-high-rise-solar-aktivhaus/

July 7, 2014
Not a large building but an instrumented test house which actually produced more energy than it consumed even after an unusually bad winter:
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/07/nist-net-zero-energy-test-house-blows-past-goals-one-year-trial/

July 11, 2014
Swiss Company Renovating to Net Zero and Net Positive Energy
http://www.viriden-partner.ch/en/index.cgi?pk=apartment_buildings

Saw Karl Viriden present some of his work today at the Watt d’Or event at Northeastern.

January 12, 2015

First Passivhaus-certified laboratory building in USA, University of Chicago's Warren Woods Ecological Field Station
http://www.gologic.us/passivhaus/

March 11, 2015

Philippe Starck’s prefab positive net energy house - up to 150% of the energy the house needs
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/17/philippe-starck-path-prefabricated-low-energy-home-prototype/

Brooklyn’s BrightnGreen zero net energy 8 unit residence
http://brightngreen.com/solar/

Low carbon nine-story building in Tianjin, China
http://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-GB/projects/h2-low-carbon-project-for-teda-modern-service-district-tianjin

General Services Administration's Net-Zero Energy Task Group
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/445/3660266/GSA-task-force-plans-for-future-net-zero-energy-buildings
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/getMediaData?mediaId=196947

Zero Energy Building in Norway, designed to "achieve a balanced carbon footprint throughout the course of their whole existence, including construction, operations, and demolition" and providing "more energy than it takes to build it, operate it, and charge the car in the garage"
http://snohetta.com/project/188-zeb-pilot-house

Cropthorne House  exceeds German Passivhaus standard by a factor of three (heat demand 5kWh/m²/yr). Completely 'water-neutral' by use of harvested rainwater and composting toilets – ...Uses neither mains water or drainage, nor the energy required to deliver them.Intelligent use of renewable energy makes the house carbon negative.
http://www.cropthornehouse.co.uk
[thermal mass for seasonal storage?]

99 Story Net Zero Skyscraper In Jakarta
Designed by US architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the 1740′ tall, 99-story net zero skyscraper will generate as much energy as it uses, have zero waste discharge, and feature reduced water demand. The architects say this is “the world’s first supertall tower for which energy is the primary design driver.”
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/04/pertamina-builds-net-zero-skyscraper-jakarta-hq/

First Passivhaus-certified laboratory building in USA, University of Chicago's Warren Woods Ecological Field Station
http://www.gologic.us/passivhaus/

General Services Administration task group recommended that at least 50 percent of the GSA’s and the entire federal government’s building area achieve net-zero energy status by 2030
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/06/gsa-lead-net-zero-energy-building-revolution/

R-951 Residence is the first Passive House certified and Net-Zero capable buildings to be completed in New York City, three 1,500 square foot apartment condominiums
http://www.r-951.com
http://inhabitat.com/nyc/tour-brooklyns-first-solar-powered-passive-house-condo-building-in-prospect-heights-photos/

Net zero home infographic
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/net-zero-home-of-the-future-infographic.jpg

Zero waste textile factory
http://www.exploration-architecture.com/projects/zero-waste-textile-factory
http://inhabitat.com/explorations-zero-waste-textile-factory-design-is-inspired-by-nature-designed-by-science/nagpur-zero-waste-textile-garden/

Net zero retrofit office rental building
http://rmw.com/projects/435-indio-way/

Australian carbon positive pre-fab house
http://www.archiblox.com.au/projects/carbon-positive-house/

Swedish EcoDataCenter - Three buildings, 23,250 square meters, 18 megawatts from Sun, wind, water and secular biofuels, 24/7/365
http://ecodatacenter.se/en/

Modular School Buildings Move to Net Zero Energy - these schools are being erected now in CA
http://www.gundemhaberleri.org/modular-school-buildings-move-to-net-zero-energy.html

April 23, 2015

Tucson/Pima County Net Zero Energy Standard
http://www.pima.gov/netzero/

Zero Energy Performance Index
http://newbuildings.org/zero-energy-performance-index-zepi

Zero energy lab at University of North Texas
http://eastfieldnews.com/2015/03/24/zero-energy-lab-recycles-sun-water-power/

Net zero DC microgrid for CA Honda distribution plant
http://planetsave.com/2015/03/25/bosch-building-dc-microgrid-honda-california/

Passive house in NYC
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/realestate/the-passive-house-in-new-york-city.html

2015 List of zero energy buildings in USA and Canada
http://newbuildings.org/sites/default/files/2015ZNEbuildingsList.pdf

Zero net laboratory at Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
http://www.sasaki.com/blog/view/558/

Prototype 4x positive energy portable classroom for Hawaii
http://andersonanderson.com/2013/02/01/energy-positive-portable-classroom/

Sustainable Education Every Day (SEED) Living Building classroom in Pittsburgh
http://theseedcollaborative.org/seedclassroom/

Richmond, VA single-story seven units “net-zero energy” multifamily apartment building for lower-income seniors
http://www.multihousingnews.com/features/getting-to-zero/1004118318.html

San Leandro, CA Zero Net Energy Center -  the very first large-scale commercial building retrofit to meet the standards of the U.S. Department of Energy as “zero net energy”. It is also the new home of the IBEW Local 595 and the Northern California Chapter of NECA’s Joint Apprenticeship and Training Program.  The building celebrated the completion of its first year of occupancy in September, 2014 and proved its zero net energy status.
http://www.znecenter.org

UC Merced has taken a Triple Zero Commitment to consume zero net energy and produce zero waste and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2020
http://www.ucmerced.edu/triple-zero-commitment

Analysis of load match and grid interaction indicators in net zero energy buildings with simulated and monitored data
http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-84907707782&origin=inward&txGid=02644C134DF17E1B39B736A671D4F331.N5T5nM1aaTEF8rE6yKCR3A%3a2

ASHEAE Net Zero Energy video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQFJr5E7_R0

Germany's power flow animation of electricity production, consumption and transport at 100% renewable energy
http://www.kombikraftwerk.de/100-prozent-szenario/power-flow-animation.html

June 12, 2015
Net positive townhouses in Roxbury neighborhood of Boston
http://www.is-architects.com/roxbury-e

Federal and state mandates are influencing how buildings and construction projects are being designed, constructed, and operated, as well. California’s recently passed building code revisions that require all new residential and commercial construction to achieve zero net energy by 2020 and 2030, respectively. Similarly, new requirements by the federal and state governments call for all new federal buildings to achieve zero net energy by 2030 and all new state buildings to be built as zero net energy facilities after 2025.
https://ucsandiegoextension.wordpress.com/tag/zero-net-energy/

AC/DC Microgrid
http://www.engineering.com/ElectronicsDesign/ElectronicsDesignArticles/ArticleID/10092/Tesla-and-Edison-Reconciled-An-ACDC-Microgrid.aspx

2015 Race to Zero Student Design Competition on cost-effective, zero energy homes for mainstream builders - 33 entries from 27 universities
http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/2015-results
Description of winning entry
http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/students-design-efficient-home-with-central-air-cost-of-only-38-annually/178452/

Hybrid electric buildings - storage to microgrid to a fleet of such buildings to act as a peaker plant - not zero net energy but the implications are applicable
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/advanced-microgrid-solutions-raises-6.9m-for-hybrid-electric-buildings

Barcelona building with responsive bioclimatic skin
http://inhabitat.com/responsive-bioclimatic-skin-wraps-around-leed-gold-icta-icp-building-in-barcelona/icta-icp-by-h-arquitectes-2/?extend=1

Zero energy prefab homes (CA)
http://www.wisatagrafi.com/zero/zero-energy-prefab-homes.html

Zero net energy development in Davis, CA, two thousand occupants
http://cityminded.org/two-thousand-live-net-zero-and-love-it-13361

Sekisui Heim Japanese construction company builds "zero-utility cost" houses and has  constructed over 160,000 units with "solar generation systems"
http://www.sekisuichemical.com/about/division/housing/


October 8, 2015
World's first high rise Passivhaus (?) for Cornell Tech in NYC
http://www.handelarchitects.com/projects/project-main/cornell-res-main.html

Belgian study on retrofit systems for zero energy buildings
http://biblioteca.universia.net/html_bura/ficha/params/title/screening-and-analyzing-retrofit-systems-for-zero-energy-renovation-and/id/61497291.html

Washington DC study on cost and value of net zero and living buildings
http://living-future.org/news/dc-studies-cost-and-value-net-zero-living-buildings-new-report#.VZnIAWzsu_s.twitter

Belgium's largest PassivHaus breaks ground in Brussels
http://www.neutelings-riedijk.com/index.php?id=10,659,0,0,1,0
http://inhabitat.com/belgiums-largest-passive-office-building-breaks-ground-in-brussels/

Zero Carbon House from Cardiff University
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33544831
http://inhabitat.com/energy-positive-solcer-house-in-the-uk-can-nearly-put-out-nearly-twice-as-much-energy-as-it-uses/

USA's first Zero Net affordable apartments in Woodland, CA
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/06/29/first-zero-net-affordable-apartments-open-in-woodland/

New Construction Guide and the Architecture 2030 Challenge
http://newbuildings.org/blog/new-construction-guide-and-architecture-2030-challenge

Best practices for zero net energy buildings from Marc Rosenbaum
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/best-practices-zero-net-energy-buildings

First net zero energy retail store in New York State
http://www.longislandweekly.com/long-islands-first-net-zero-energy-retail-store/

Axiom House - flatpack prefab net-zero concept home at half the cost of a standard home
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/acre-zero-energy-prototype-home
http://www.acredesigns.com/axiom/

DOE Common Definition of Zero Energy Buildings
http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/downloads/common-definition-zero-energy-buildings

Japanese Zero-Energy Buildings:  "Japan's 10 major homebuilders sold between 10,000 and 20,000 zero-energy houses in fiscal 2014. That number is expected to rise to more than 50,000 by fiscal 2020."
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/For-Japan-homebuilders-zero-is-magic-number

NESEA’s High Performance Buildings Database, a joint project with the Net Zero Energy Coalition, will be unveiled at the Building Energy NY conference on October 15. The database showcases projects that qualify via participation in an eligible building performance program or by providing energy use data or an energy model as evidence of achieving zero net energy on an annual basis, plus or minus 10 percent. Each case study in the filterable database covers over 150 data points, and has been peer-reviewed by a net zero expert. Submissions are encouraged.
http://nesea.org/conference/buildingenergy-nyc-2015

Free Energy: Solar and Dynamo LED Keychain Lights

Last year, one of the vendors at NESEA's Building Energy conference (http://www.nesea.org/buildingenergy/) gave away a keychain fob, a little two LED hand crank light.  This year, another vendor gave away three LED solar keychain lights.  A few weeks later, I got another solar LED light as a giveaway from the MIT Energy Initiative.

A little searching found where these promotional gifts are available in bulk:
1.61 @ per 5000 solar keychain lights
http://promotionalproductsonline.com/products/Colored-Solar-Powered-LED-Keylights.html

1.32@ per 5000 hand crank keychain lights
http://www.dhgate.com/top-50-pcs-lot-brand-new-2-led-mini-dynamo/p-ff80808133cfdac80134165da92c2e25.html#s1-1-1

I wonder what happens when these cheap sweatshop trinkets meet the necessary invention of the bottom billion and a third, billion and a half people who do not yet have access to reliable electricity.




In 1988 I visited China.
One evening, I walked out of the White Swan Hotel
on Shamian Island and crossed the bridge
into the city of Guangzhou.
There I saw a line of men
standing behind small folding tables
in closed shop doorways.

Coming closer, I saw that they were rebuilding and
reselling
plastic "disposable" lighters.

I want a solar rechargeable reading light
just as cheap, adaptable, and readily available
as a disposable cigarette lighter.
We need to make it possible
for every child around the world
to read in bed
and dream.

That's one way we could transition to a more renewable economy.

Richard Komp has been practicing another, seeding solar cottage industry systems around the world for the last few decades.  He teaches people how to assemble their own panels, from  AA battery to household, school, or hospital scale, out of raw solar cells.  You can read more about cottage industry solar at
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/25/1196968/-Solar-as-a-Cottage-Industry

Simply Questions

Simply Questions about the ecological footprint for children (because adults are too crazy to understand it).

Occupy Green

This idea may be moot after all the forced evictions of the Occupations from public spaces but I thought I'd share it anyway.

I've visited the Occupations in Wall Street, Boston, and Providence, RI. Every time I go to one of them, I try to connect with somebody about making the Occupation green with, as yet, little success. In New York, I saw the greywater treatment system Mobile Research Labs set up and talked to a couple of people about using some simple solar techniques. In Boston, I've tried to connect the winterization team with the student Energy Clubs at some of the local colleges and universities and alerted my own network of solar enthusiasts to Occupy Boston's efforts. I've also tried to do the same by contacting OWS's Sustainability Group. In Providence, I talked with the only occupier I saw up and around early on a Sunday morning. He was picking up trash around the park and was disappointed that the group hadn't organized themselves enough to do recycling. I gave him my card and my elevator pitch for a green occupation and he said he'd pass it on.

I look at the Occupations and see economic refugee camps and a possible test-bed for emergency response and sustainable economic development around the world. Some may say that's crazy but the links are there if you look.

Occupy Wall Street had the aforementioned greywater treatment system and bike generators in NYC built by Time's Up. In October, Greenpeace brought solar panels to the site (video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZI8WSM7O2w ). There was even a system for carrying compostable "wastes" to community gardens by cargo bike.

In Boston, Revolt Lab designed and built a portable solar charger (more at http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/59128-occupy-wall-street-spawns-diy-solar-power ). Sage Radachowsky built a winterized micro house and brought it to the Occupation.

There is even an effort to Occupy Rooftops on Community Solar Day, November 20, by Solar Mosaic, a group which has been building community solar projects one panel at a time.

All of these are great ideas and a good start but there are many other things that are possible.

How about the 99% expressing solidarity with the Other 90%, the poorest people around the world, by using the solar cooking techniques that has been used in African refugee camps for years:



I especially like this video because it not only shows you how to use (and make) a simple solar cooker but also demonstrates an old slow cooking technique, the hotbox or haybox cooker. This is simply an insulated container into which is placed the a pot of food once it has been heated up to cooking temperature. This is an idea that goes back a long ways into our history and is just as useful today.

Rainwater harvesting is another simple idea that the Occupations could use as access to water has been an issue for most Occupation sites since they started.

Sanitation is an obvious problem that has not been adequately addressed. I wonder if the Drink Pee Drink Pee Drink Pee process where you can pee in a container and "then perform a biochemical reaction that transforms the nutrients in your urine into an immediately usable fertilizer to feed your own plants" might be applicable.

The US military is now making solar and wind powered forward bases. Can some of their technology be adapted by the Occupations? Does Architecture for Humanity and Crisis Commons have any interest in trying out emergency response ideas through the Occupations?

These ideas are only a beginning of what is possible.

----------------

All I know about simple solar is at
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/09/simple-solar-parts-1-2-and-3.html
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/12/simple-solar-parts-4-through-8.html

Trash Technology and Recycled Solar: Plastic Bottles

Solar PSA: A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector

Here's my latest Solar PSA on how a south-facing window is already a solar collector:


"Any window that sees direct sunlight is a solar collector. You can learn how to use that free energy to make your home more comfortable and secure. Caulk and seal the window against drafts. Install storm windows on the exterior, interior, or both. Cover the window at night with an insulating curtain to prevent conduction, convection, and radiative heat loss. A valence above the window will stop night-time drafts and reduce condensation. A sunny window can double as a greenhouse for starting seedlings or growing house plants. Expand the solar space below, above, or beside the window with a windowbox solar air or water heater. You can even design a living system to provide fresh vegetables and fish year round while producing space heat, cleaning the air, and reducing waste. A south-facing window is already a solar collector. Learn how to use it."


I made the following four 30 second public service announcements for public access TV around 1991. They served as intro and outro to the videos of the Boston Area Solar Energy Association lectures (http://www.basea.org) I shot and cablecast on Cambridge Community TV (http://www.cctvcambridge.org/) for a few years. The tape archive of all those lectures needs to be digitized.

I made the following four 30 second public service announcements for public access TV around 1991. They served as intro and outro to the videos of the Boston Area Solar Energy Association lectures I shot and cablecast on Cambridge Community TV for a few years. There is still a tape archive of all those talks by national and world class energy experts that could be digitized if anyone was interested.




30 seconds of solar history (based on the book A Golden Thread by John Perlin and Ken Butti and independent research) along with modern, working examples, often hidden in plain sight.



Energy sources broken down by btu (though I'm not quite sure my math is correct).



These two trick questions were collaborations with the polymathic Ed Hill.





I made another set of 15 second spots back in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the Urban Solar Energy Association, the precursor of BASEA which hosted workshops and solar barnraisings as well as monthly lectures and talks. Those PSAs went to the local TV stations and, if memory serves, two channels ran them at least once. There may even be a 2 inch tape somewhere in my archives. That was the first south-facing window is already a solar collector PSA. The others were "A south-facing porch can be a sunspace or greenhouse. Learn how to use it at the Urban Solar Energy Association.

Recently, I put all I know about Simple Solar online in eight video installments that add up to about a half hour.
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/09/simple-solar-parts-1-2-and-3.html
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/12/simple-solar-parts-4-through-8.html
Al Gore is doing 24 hours of Climate Reality on Current TV on September 14. I wonder how many minutes will be devoted to solutions rather than describing the problem and persuading the unconvinced. An inconvenient truth about "An Inconvenient Truth" is that it was very light in the solutions department.

I say Solar IS Civil Defense. At least that level of solar is affordable, available, and practical today whatever Climate Reality you inhabit.

Old Solar: 1881

Edward Sylvester Morse patented his air heater in 1881. It is still a great design with a versatile vent system.

A simple glazed box on the south wall with a dark absorber, an air space, and two sets of vents at top and bottom, to the outside air and the inside of the house, this is a basic air heater that can be modified for wall or window.

Edward Sylvester Morse built at least three of these. One was at the Peabody Museum in Salem, MA and used an iron absorber panel. The second had a slate absorber and was on his own home, also in Salem. The last was at the Boston Athenaeum. He also lectured on the topic at MIT and published a pamphlet on his solar air heater findings.

ES Morse was a remarkable gentleman. Not only did he teach at the Essex Institute in Salem, MA but he lived and taught in Japan and traveled to China. His book, _Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings_, is still in print and a great primer on traditional Japanese culture. He was a president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and wrote wonderful reports on topics as diverse as noise pollution, archaeology, and natural science. I especially enjoyed "Fireflies Flashing in Unison."

SolarWall is a modern adaptation of Morse's idea. It is an unglazed perforated absorber. A fan draws outside air through the absorber and into the heated space. It gets up to 75% thermal efficiency they say.

Solarwall uses the air flow pattern shown in the leftmost illustration of Morse's patent. The TAP (Thermosiphon Air Panel) is an example of the middle illustration, cycling room air past the absorber in a closed loop, full heating mode. The third illustration shows an air chimney from the floor of the room to the top of the absorber, a cooling technique.

I'd like to see a Morse collector with modern materials, PV fan assist, and controls that monitor and maximize the vent system. Could be interesting.

Old Solar: Eames Solar Do-Nothing Machine

Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar AIr Heater

Old Solar: Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
More on simple solar devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector

Simple Solar - Parts 1, 2, and 3

I presented a workshop on Simple Solar at the Boston Skill Share on a windy Sunday, April 19, outside the Stata Center at MIT. Werner and Julie of Videosphere recorded me and I finally got around to doing a rough edit of the first part, the simplest solar devices that anyone can make to disinfect and heat water and cook food.

It's six and a half minutes long, I have the sniffles and say "All right?" a lot but the rest of the information is good. After all, solar heating is remarkably simple:
dark heats up
light reflects
clear keeps out the wind



Boiling water and cooking with the Simple Solar principles and using the basic geometry of the parabolic curve to focus light in a line and a circle with a parabolic trough and parabolic dish.



The late Tim Harkness made the parabolic dish used in the video on that windy April day. There is a Tim Harkness Fund for Invention at Hampshire College which awards grants for innovative work in applied design and invention, especially in areas of sustainability and renewable energy. Students and alumni from the Five Colleges are eligible.

How to Draw a Parabola

Draw a Parabola with pencil and string



Simple solar windowbox air heater for supplemental heating of a single room. This device uses a solar electric fan assist and can be built full scale (2 feet x 4 feet) for about $100 worth of materials.

More on the Windowbox Solar Air Heater

More on simple solar devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector
Your Southernmost Window
Solar IS Civil Defense
Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated

Earlier Diaries:
Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
Old Solar: Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern
Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
Old Solar: 1881

Small Scale LED Lighting + Off-Grid Cell Phone Charging in Mali

Matt Berg currently serves as the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project based out of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City and prior to that, was the director of the Geekcorps Mali program in Bamako, Mali.

Inspired by Jan Chipchase, I put together the following photo montage [pdf alert] covering the ever increasing number of cheap Chinese LED lights that are transforming the way people access lighting. There are a lot of amazing NGOs doing work to address the issue of rural household lighting but I think they are at best a fill-gap to an existing market gap. The mass market solution (LED + small rechargeable battery + 1 W solar panel) that will really make a difference will be Chinese and at a price that will encourage extremely fast adoption rates. This is evident from the introduction of LED flashlights in Mali that completely took over the market in less than six months.

I also document the common way most cell phone charging is done in an off-grid environment. While it may not the be the most power efficient or battery safe method it works and is both cheap to the supplier and consumer. Used car batteries you can see are the 'power lines' in a lot of African villages that form the basis of distributed power distribution.

More at http://buildafrica.org/2009/04/28/led-lights-and-12vcell-phone-charging-mali/

Matt Berg is exactly right. LED light, battery, and small solar packages will hit the market within a year or two. LED lights and cell phones bring most if not all of the world's population into the electric (and communication) network. They can also be charged with a hand crank or bicycle generator. Extra 6 volt motorcycle and 12 volt car batteries can be charged in the course of driving a car or truck. Minimum "clean" electricity is affordably feasible in the world today, if only we realize it.

I wish the US government noticed. By my count, there have been over 700,000 solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios distributed in Afghanistan by US and NATO forces since before our 2001 invasion. None of them can charge a cell phone or a standard size battery as currently configured. US AID is sending 16,000 solar/dynamo radios to the Sudan this year and plans to send 250,000 over the next few years as part of a nation-building program. None of them, so far, will charge a cell phone or an extra battery. All of them could.

These techniques can also be useful when the grid goes down, which is one reason why I say:

Solar IS Civil Defense

Weatherization Barnraising: This Old Extreme White House Makeover

Saturday, December 6, between 30 and 40 people came to a house in Cambridge, MA to do a weatherization barnraising. We began checking in at 8 am to start work at 9. There was a blower door and an infrared camera to test our results. This was part of the public access TV series Energy Smackdown, a competition between different towns to see which can reduce their carbon footprint most. Materials were donated by EFI and Home Depot. Byggmeister donated the blower door and infrared camera and the operator, Kerry Koskinen, volunteered his time.

A blower door depressurizes the house by 50 Pascals so that you can see where the air leaks in. You can feel the draft with the back of your hand or see it with a smoke pencil (or a stick of incense or a cigarette). A blower door test costs from $200 to $500 and is well worth it if you are serious about cutting down infiltration. On average, 2 professionals in one day will reduce air leaks by about 250 cfm [cubic feet per minute].



We started at 4500 cfm at 50 pascals and after 3 hours of work and about $500 of materials we ended at 3850 cfm.





The infrared camera gave us a clear view of where the leaks were. The camera records temperature and you can see heat as the lighter colors and coolth as the darker. The temperature scale is registered on the left of the picture. Unfortunately, the battery on the IR camera conked out before Kerry could do the after pictures.









An IR thermometer which costs $70 rather than $7000 for an IR camera will also work but it just ain't as kewl. And there's an infrared "heat seeking ray gun" whose beam changes color in the presence of cooler temperatures that should be available sometime in 2009 for $39.99.

I was working on windows, putting Mortite rope caulk around the window sash. Unfortunately, the windows had plastic cladding and the composition of Mortite has changed since the last time I used it. It wouldn't stick. Very frustrating. I switched to insulated the wall sockets instead. Eventually, we changed to weatherstripping tape, a product I hadn't used before and didn't use that day either as I had a previous engagement and had to leave early. Later reports informed me that most if not all the windows were weatherstripped in record time.

The organizers reported that

With the "blower door" and infra-red camera to guide us, we found that we reduced the air infiltration at Chris and Pam's last weekend by 15%. This will be close to what you can expect in your own home if you decide to weatherize as we all learned to do. That should be worth about $200/year at current fuel prices.

We didn't finish insulating the attic hatch which would have reduced the air infiltration even more.

This is what the crowd looked like as we gathered for our instructions.



A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of the cat who I heard got insulated behind a wall for a day or so.

I'd like to see a weatherization barnraising at the White House. Complete with blower door test and infrared camera.

I'd like to see President Obama kick off the move to green jobs with a weatherization, insulation, and energy efficiency work day on public buildings. There are plenty of repairs and upgrades for government buildings that provide immediate rewards, saving enough money through lower energy costs to pay back in a couple of years. This is exactly where the green job economy starts. Architecture 2030 has a stimulus plan to create millions of jobs by applying energy efficiency methods to existing buildings that would pay for itself in energy savings within five years.

from Architecture 2030 Stimulus Plan - pdf alert:

With a federal investment of $85.56 billion each year for two years, the Plan will:
in just two years,
create at least 8.445 million new jobs and
create a new $1.6 trillion renovation market
and in just five years,
save consumers $142.33 to 200.88 billion,
reduce CO2 emissions by 481.13 Million Metric Tons,
reduce energy consumption by 6.17 Quadrillion Btu,
save 1.83 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and
save 83.35 million barrels of oil.

I'd like to see President Obama bring weatherization barnraisings to the national level but, even if he doesn't, we'll continue to have weatherization barnraisings in Cambridge. The next barnraising is at a local public school and will have the help of the MIT Sustainability Club, a student group. I can imagine weatherization and, later, solar barnraisings on one school building a month, with energy efficiency training building throughout the community. A consistent program of hands on energy education could be significant.

from MIT Sustainability Club:

HEET, a Cambridge-based energy efficiency team, is weatherizing the Cambridgeport Public School. We need someone who can install a few photosensors in classrooms and stairways so when it's bright enough from daylight, the lights turn off. The person should be able to teach a few volunteers how to do this work also (safely).

The Cambridge public school system needs help decreasing its energy use, so more of its budget goes to teachers and books, than to wasting energy. Help us help them.

The event is tentatively planned for January 19th, from 12:30 pm to 5 pm
Cambridgeport Public School, 89 Elm St. Cambridge

If interested, email Audrey@audreyschulman.com

HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) was recently awarded a Climate Superstar by MCAN. Check out the article the Boston Globe wrote about HEET:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/turning_up_heet/

Windowbox Solar Air Heater

This is a demonstration model of a solar windowbox air heater.

You can build it from a sheet of insulation board, some clear glass or plastic, and a furnace air filter painted black.

When the sun shines, the black absorber inside the insulated windowbox gets hot, heating air which rises into the room behind the window, and drawing cooler air from inside that room past the absorber in a thermal loop that lasts until the sun goes down.

At night, the cold air sinks to the bottom of the windowbox and closes off this thermal loop so there is no additional night time heat loss.

Increase the efficiency of the windowbox solar air heater with a solar electric, photovoltaic, PV fan.

This demonstration model uses a repurposed solar car window ventilator. Only when the sun hits the PV panel does the fan move air, an automatic solar circuit thermostatic control.

The windowbox solar air heater is a supplemental heater for one room with a south-facing window and can be modified to provide increased ventilation and cooling in the summer as Edward Sylvester Morse's 1881 solar air heater design did.



Cost for a 2 foot by 3 foot insulation board solar windowbox air heater is around $100. PV fan car vents are available for as little as $5. One recently built windowbox has heated air by at least 20º Fahrenheit, from 65 to 85º, and will do so all winter.

Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated

Solar IS Civil Defense
Like this solar LED light and AA battery charger


or this solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radio, similar to the ones US and NATO forces have distributed in Afghanistan.

Solar IS Civil Defense
and, after all,
we are at war.


Solar IS Civil Defense
a flashlight, radio or cell phone, an extra set of batteries
solar powered
with hand or foot operated dynamo back-up,
emergency lighting and communication
day or night
from sunlight or
muscle power.

One solar component
is an LED flashlight
which also charges AA batteries.
This design allows for
battery switching,
charging a second set of batteries
to use in other devices.

The Bogolight is a charger and light
with an international development
addition:
each light bought
buys another solar LED light and battery charger
for someone who has no access to electricity
in this world.

Solar IS Civil Defense in another way.


US and NATO forces have distributed
solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios
in Afghanistan.

Those solar/dynamos could easily charge
AA batteries
and establish a low power DC grid
through battery switching.
This level of survival electricity
would raise the standard of living
for most Afghanis,
helping to rebuild their lives
as well as their country and economy.

This circuit diagram is one way
to add this capability to the present
solar/dynamo radios now in Afghanistan.



The image I have is of a
solar swadeshi, hand-made electricity.
Instead of turning the handle
of the charkha spinning wheel
making thread
for khadi cloth
an hour a day as Gandhi did,
turning the crank of a dynamo a half hour a day,
the direct production of survival power
for yourself, your family, and your community,
swadeshi, local production.

How did Gandhi's Pashtun colleague,
Badshah Khan practice it?
And could his example
help bring peace back
today?

Lifecycle Costs of Photovoltaics

Treehugger had a squib about a recent Brookhaven Labs analysis of lifecycle cost assessment for photovoltaic panels. There wasn't a direct link so I had to do a little digging to find it but the conclusion alone is worth it:

Using data compiled from the original records of twelve PV manufacturers, we quantified the emissions from the life cycle of four major commercial photovoltaic technologies and showed that they are insignificant in comparison to the emissions that they replace when introduced in average European and U.S. grids. According to our analysis, replacing grid electricity with central PV systems presents significant environmental benefits, which for CdTe PV amounts to 89–98% reductions of GHG emissions, criteria pollutants, heavy metals, and radioactive species. For roof-top dispersed installations, such pollution reductions are expected to be even greater as the loads on the transmission and distribution networks are reduced, and part of the emissions related to the life cycle of these networks are avoided.

It is interesting that emissions of heavy metals are greatly reduced even for the types of PV technologies that make direct use of related compounds. For example the emissions of Cd from the life cycle of CdTe PV are 90−300 times lower than those from coal power plants with optimally functioning particulate control devices. In fact, life-cycle Cd emissions are even lower in CdTe PV than in crystalline Si PV, because the former use less energy in their life cycle than the later. In general, thin-film photovoltaics require less energy in their manufacturing than crystalline Si photovoltaics, and this translates to lower emissions of heavy metals, SOx, NOx, PM, and CO2. In any case, emissions from any type of PV system are expected to be lower than those from conventional energy systems because PV does not require fuel to operate. PV technologies provide the benefits of significantly curbing air emissions harmful to human and ecological health. It is noted that the environmental profiles of photovoltaics are further improving as efficiencies and material utilization rates increase and this kind of analysis needs to be updated periodically. Also, future very large penetrations of PV would alter the grid composition and this has to be accounted for in future analyses.

The four types of PV examined were multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride.

Cadmium telluride was best overall but

At least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid.

The estimated energy payback time (EPBT) for PV ranges from 6 years to 1.1 years, depending upon the type of PV, the insolation, and the installation. PV panels are usually rated to have a lifetime of 25 to 30 years. Now you know what to say when anybody questions whether PV's produce more energy than it takes to make them.

originally posted at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/28/232952/333/722/466075

Solar on the Radio

I was interviewed on the Samantha Clemens show on Saturday, February 16 over Tufts University radio, WMFO. You can listen to the interview at http://www.samanthaclemens.com/Guests.html

We had a good time talking about the fact that Solar IS Civil Defense and other things. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

My Solar Christmas

As a Christmas gift, I donated solar ovens to people in the refugee camps around Darfur. For the people there, who are at risk every time they have to leave the camp to seek scarce fuel, a solar oven can mean survival.

Jewish World Watch sends two solar ovens to the Iridimi and Touloum refugee camps in Chad for $30.

There are other solar oven programs as well.

This video from German CARE is especially close to my heart because it shows a woman in one of the 3 international displaced person camps they run in Easten Chad using a solar oven and a "haybox" or retained heat cooker to prepare a meal.



The haybox is simply an insulated box into which you place a hot pot. The heat has nowhere to go but into the food. You can also use a stone as a heat reservoir: heat the stone, place it in the box with a pot of food, cook. It's an old, old technique updated with solar. I love these ancient solutions to common problems.

Here's another youtube report on a solar cooker workshop held in Nyala, Sudan under the auspices of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization.



I also gave the gift of bees and trees as I do every year through Heifer International. Donate bees, trees, rabbits, geese, chickens, goats, as well as heifers to a project from their catalog somewhere around the world, including the US, in the names of your loved ones.

I like to give bees because they are all about pollination and improving agricultural production. Investment in pollination in these days of colony cluster disease is especially important.

I like trees because they are also a carbon offset. I've given a decade and more's worth of 60 trees a year to Heifer International. That should do something to absorb some of the carbon my energy use has released to the atmosphere.



Last but certainly not least, I also gave a few solar LED flashlights and AA battery chargers to friends and family. These Bogolights are very well designed with one button (on and off) and one screw to secure the battery bay. There's even a phosphorescent band so you can find the flashlight in the dark. They work as reading lights too. I know because I tried them out. They also use standard AA rechargeable batteries and allow for battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another set in a second device.

Bogo means "buy one, give one" by which they mean, you spend $25 to buy one for yourself and the company sends a second to somebody in the developing world. You can even choose where and what program. A good deal.

I gave these solar flashlights because

Solar IS Civil Defense

Solar Insurgency

Small super-empowered vanguards can, with the use of systems disruption to amplify effort, delegitimize weakened governmental hierarchies and force them into the box of hollow states. However, instead of a pure organic government envisioned by Che, an organic open source insurgency, composed of a plethora of small super-empowered groups (that appeal to primary loyalties of tribe, cast, clan, family, gang, ideology, etc.), form in the vacuum. This open source insurgency will only bring fragmentation and perpetual conflict. The vanguard's role, is merely as a catalyst for its formation.

John Robb, Global Guerrillas

What if the global guerrilla vanguard was constructive rather than destructive? What if the vanguard was building resilience and autonomy, survival and security instead of chaos and destruction?

Small super-empowered groups can also do potholes as, reportedly, Hizbollah has been able to show in Lebanon. Maybe not global guerrillas but certainly a localized, decentralized model, Cuba's already gone through their Peak Oil experience and adapted through lots of public transport, bicycles, and local agriculture. In the 70s some of the 60s civil rights/antiwar/feminist/environmental energies of the Cold War baby boomers went into community gardens, farmers' markets, food coops, feeding programs, local agriculture, sustainability and environmental restoration. These networks still exist.

In the face of oil-funded terrorism, an oil war in Iraq, an overstretched, under-budgeted, corrupt social welfare system, and increasingly expensive natural disasters and emergencies Solar IS Civil Defense can be a logical open source guerrilla response.

For instance, a minimal amount of solar electric photovoltaic PV power charges batteries. Combine that with a hand crank, foot pedal, or string pull generator and you have virtually permanent personal electric power (cell phone, flashlight or reading light, computer, camera...) for emergency situations, just in case.

Before the invasion of Afghanistan, NATO forces dropped solar/dynamo AM/FM/SW radios for the civilian population. After the invasion, they gave away more radios. Unfortunately, the solar/dynamo wouldn't allow for battery switching. The NATO radios charge only the internal hardwired battery. If the solar/dynamo could charge batteries in the external battery bay, then you could charge one set of batteries while you used in rotation another two or three sets of batteries to operate a cell phone and light as well as the radio. The solar/dynamo would be a source of electricity day or night, by sunlight or muscle power, at least for the lifetime of the batteries, crank, pedal, string, and PV panel. Now add a bicycle.

The Bogolight charges standard size AA batteries and thus does allow for battery switching. The Bogolight is a solar LED flashlight or reading light that provides 4 hours of light for every 8 hours of sunlight. It is very well designed. You buy one for $25 and they donate a second light to various development programs around world. Solar IS Civil Defense at home and abroad.

The human scale combination of solar power with human muscle power allows the human power component to become a kind of Solar Swadeshi. Instead of turning Gandhi's spinning wheel making thread for khadi cloth, cranking or pedalling or pulling a string, the repetitive practice of personal power producing electricity for an AA battery all the way back to the grid.

Open source global guerrilla vanguard as solar scholar warriors fomenting resilience, cooperation, and the free exercise of the imagination, green ecological designers to save us at the last possible moment, the promise of the Whole Earth Catalog, Woodstock, New Alchemy Institute, the Viridian greens, Burning Man, worldchanging...

Solar Water

The Watercone® is a solar powered water desalinator that takes salt or brackish water and distills it into freshwater. It is simple to use, lightweight and mobile.

Designed to produce 1.5 liters a day, it provides a child's daily needs for fresh water and reduces the number of children who die as a result of drinking unsafe water, currently estimated to be 5000 or more each and every day.

The WATERCONE® is a long lasting UV resistant Poly Carbonate product and can be used up to 5 years daily. The material is non-toxic, non-flammable and 100% recyclable. The black pan for the saltwater is already made out of 100% recycled PC. Even when the WATERCONE® becomes old and tarnished, it can still be used to collect rain water, as a roof panel or container for other goods.

The Watercone® project is looking for investors and companies to initiate mass production tooling and distribution. So the Watercone can be manufactured for a lower price and become affordable to the people in need...

Single products are not available at the moment!

The Watercone® was tested in Yemen in 2004 and in the Lake Baikal region of Russia in 2005.

Thanks to Ecogeek for bringing this design to my attention.

Until everybody who needs one can get a Watercone®, you can pasteurize water in clear plastic bottles by exposing them to the sun.

The Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) process is a simple technology used to improve the microbiological quality of drinking water. SODIS uses solar radiation to destroy pathogenic microorganisms which cause water borne diseases.

SODIS is ideal to treat small quantities of water. Contaminated water is filled into transparent plastic bottles and exposed to full sunlight for six hours.

Sunlight is treating the contaminated water through two synergetic mechanisms: Radiation in the spectrum of UV-A (wavelength 320-400nm) and increased water temperature. If the water temperatures raises above 50°C, the disinfection process is three times faster.

You can raise the temperature of the water in transparent bottles by putting them in the sun against a dark background.

Simple Solar Rules:
Dark heats up
Light reflects
Clear keeps off the wind

As suggested above, years from now, when your Watercone® wears out, you can use it to collect rainwater for the gravity drip irrigation system exhibited at the recent Design for the Other 90% show at NYC's Cooper-Hewitt Museum.



Change the color of the gravity drip bag to black and you have a solar hot water heater. [See Simple Solar Rules above.]

There are lots of other things you can do with sunlight and plastic containers.

I plant my garden a month or six weeks early by practicing Recycled Solar. Place a ring of plastic bottles on the soil, fill them with water, plant seeds of your choice (I've grown tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, and greens with this technique) in the middle, and cap it with another bottle with its bottom cut out. This makes a solar heated coldframe or cloche.



Solar IS Civil Defense.

Invisibility of Solar Power

We swim in sunlight and solar power every day and every minute of daylight. We just don't recognize it as btu's, lumens, or watts. We don't count the calories in our solar diet and include no accounting in our energy budget for all the sunlight we already use.

Part and parcel of this invisibility is our inability to see actual working solar when it is right in front of our eyes. Probably the most common solar electric device around your town is the portable electric sign powered by PV panels. It's that orange thing behind the tree.



Can you see the PV panels on this health center in Brookline, MA? Would you recognize it as solar, glancing up from the street or your car window as you passed by?



This is the Porter Square Shopping Center in Cambridge, MA. The story I heard, is that the owners, one of whom was John O'Connor, author of _Who Owns the Sun?_ and an environmental activist, wanted people to see the PV panels so they raised them up on steel girders, an investment more costly than the panels themselves. I always thought they should have included some legend on the steel like "Solar Energy at Work" or "Solar Energy Works!" I think that might be a good idea on other public solar installations too. [The Porter Square Shopping Center has a geothermal heating system in addition to PV solar.]




This is one of those poles with PV panels you can see by the side of many highways. They are monitoring traffic, counting cars, sending congestion alerts. I've seen some powering emergency equipment too. They are all over the place once you recognize them.


This trash container is a solar powered trash compactor. They were invented in Jamaica Plain and Boston is testing out 50 around the city. This one is in Davis Square in Somerville. The first one I saw was on Spectacle Island last summer.



Boston is also trying out solar powered parking meters. As a bicyclist, I think there are still some design issues to be worked out.

Keep your eyes open. At least when the sun is shining.

Cross-posted at dailykos as an entry in my diary there.

Cell Phone Solar: The Video

I wrote about Cell Phone Solar before at solarray and in one of my diaries at dailykos.


What I wrote a few months ago and what I learned in Jamaica is still true:

Cell phones change everything
Cell phone solar with AA/D battery charging is a useful minimum scale
The price point should be $10 American or less

Solar in Thirty Second Segments

I made these thirty second public service announcements for public access TV around 1991. They served as intro and outro to the videos of the Boston Area Solar Energy Association lectures I shot and cablecast on Cambridge Community TV for a few years. The tape archive of all those lectures needs to be digitized.



The modern history of solar is hidden in plain sight but the best book I know on the earlier 2500 years is still A Golden Thread by John Perlin and Ken Butti.



I still don't understand the relationship between a calorie and a watt. I understand the btu though. Sorry, physicists.



These two trick questions were collaborations with the polymathic Ed Hill.