US and NATO forces have distributed more than 700,000 solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios in Afghanistan since before our invasion of 2001 and that a simple modification to that solar/dynamo adds battery charging capabilities to each of them (circuit diagram at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/12/195518/177 ).
US AID is distributing 250,000 solar/dynamo radios in Sudan over the next few years. Again, those solar/dynamos can not now charge extra AA or other size batteries although with a connection to a battery bay from the cell phone charger output they certainly could. The combination of a few square inches of solar electric, photovoltaic, PV power with a hand-crank or pedal power generator provides a modicum of electric power day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. It also allows battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another. This is practical personal power production and the technology is deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Sudan or available off the shelf right now for $30 from LL Bean and many others, if you are willing to do a little tinkering.
The same technology is also a Solar Civil Defense.
Flashlight, cell phone, radio, and extra set of batteries all can be powered with a couple of square inches of solar electricity (PV) panel. It is also what we are supposed to have on hand in case of a blizzard or hurricane, emergency or disaster. Add a hand crank or pedal power generator and you have reliable production of AA and larger battery electrical power.
This level of survival solar power is a significant rise in the standard of living for the 1.6 to 1.8 billion people in the world who do not now have access to electricity, too. Civil defense preparedness here in the US could be linked to providing services to the poorest of the global poor. I am talking with a Cambridge, MA group which includes city officers and officials about the possibility of promoting Solar IS Civil Defense locally through a buy one, give one exchange with a sister city in the developing world, possibly with Bogolight (http://www.bogolight.com) or Light Haiti Project ( http://lighthaiti.org/donations.html ).
In addition, this combination of small scale solar and human power is an example of swadeshi, local production or self production, a core principle of Gandhian economics:
"Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote."
Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, 1919 ( http://members.tripod.com/~anusandhan/articles/article1.html )
Gandhi would spin thread for an hour each day, usually producing a hundred yards for weaving into cloth, and helped develop a simple spinning wheel (charkha) that allowed many to do the same. He believed that spinning was the foundation of non-violence and that khadi cloth was a means to the local production of economic independence. Gandhi was a middle-aged man when he first asked his wife Kasturba to teach him to use the spinning wheel. Once he had mastered the wheel, he practiced spinning every day for the rest of his life. Home-spinning became a symbol for independence and self-reliance throughout India under his encouragement and direction and a market began in cottage industry and home produced cloth, khadi.
Gandhi used the charkha, the spinning wheel. Today there is an e-charkha available, developed by RS Hiremath ( http://www.flexitron.diytrade.com/sdp/194986/4/pd-699352/5454575-0/e-charkha.html ):
"...spinning on the two-spindle e-charkha for two hours will produce 2,400 meters of yarn and provide a light output for 7.5 hours. According to the innovator, the LED light is of the latest type and has an extremely long life of at least 35 years. The generator in the e-charkha is also custom designed for this application and is of the three-phase AC version with no brushes, which makes it last for over three and a half decades. Hiremath has sold over 1,800 e-charkhas till date, the biggest consumer lot residing in Rajasthan and Gujarat. He says, “The response till now has been overwhelming. Most users are delighted with the prospect of a charkha generating them money and electricity.... The e-charkha, which weighs around 10 to 12 kgs, has two models—a two-spindle one and an eight-spindle one. The universal retrofit kit that can be easily attached to the shaft of any charkha is priced at Rs 1,500, while the two-spindle e-charkha costs Rs 4,500 and the eight-spindle one Rs 11,000. The innovator has applied for a patent for the retrofit kit, which consists of a three-phase AC generator, lead acid battery and intermediate control circuits for charge and discharge. It is currently manufactured at a facility in Bangalore and is mostly produced by disabled employees. The product is currently being marketed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Mumbai."
http://www.dare.co.in/people/featured-innovation/e-charkha.htm
One humanpower is about one sixth horsepower. A healthy person can produce 100 watts of power for hours on end and 300 watts in a sprint.
Returning to Afghanistan, there is the example of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Badshah Khan, who practiced Gandhian non-violence and raised the world's first non-violent army, over 100,000 strong, of Pashtun and other peoples, Muslim, Sikh, and HIndu, in the very areas where the Taliban is now active in Pakistan. They were the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Servants of God, the Red Shirts, who based their non-violence on the Islamic principle of sadr, patience, and the Pashtun custom of melmastia, hospitality. Badshah Khan was educated in a madrassa as well as a missionary school. He began building his own schools in 1910, educating both boys and girls, and formed the Khudai Khidmatgar a decade or so later. That group lasted until 1947 when it was disbanded, forcibly, by the new nation of Pakistan. I wonder if the Taliban learned anything from him.
Could we do with electricity what Gandhi did with cloth, at least for emergencies and disasters? Can hand-made electricity, 21st century khadi cloth, provide real electrical power to the people and a survival level of energy independence and autonomy?
Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/12/195518/177
Solar Swadeshi http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html
Afghanistan Solar http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/27/0353/85056
Solar Tactics in Afghanistan http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/26/01854/3246
Low Level Leverage Points in Afghanistan http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/4/810944/-Low-Level-Leverage-Points-in-Afghanistan
Solar Insurgency http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/8/0317/01605
Solar IS Civil Defense http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/30/142018/700
Islamic Satyagraha Army http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/27/23370/2751
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Climate Collaboration Contest
To members of the Climate CoLab community,
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Climate CoLab contest, as well as a major upgrade of our software platform.
The contest will address the question: What international climate agreements should the world community make?
The first round runs through October 31 and the final round through November 26.
In early December, the United Nations and U.S. Congress will be briefed on the winning entries.
We are raising funds in the hope of being able to pay travel expenses for one representative from each winning team to attend one or both of these briefings.
We invite you to form teams and enter the contest--learn more at http://climatecolab.org.
We also encourage you to fill out your profiles and add a picture, so that members of the community can get to know each other.
And please inform anyone you believe might be interested about the contest.
I voted for the 350 alternative, the closest this simulation can get to zero emissions, and entered a zero emissions scenario in the last iteration of Climate Collab. The new program is more detailed than the last but there is still a lot of work to do. Your participation can help make this tool more useful.
cross posted to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/11/909327/-Climate-Collaboration-Contest
Monday, June 07, 2010
How to Change US Energy in One Growing Season
1. Consistently demonstrate practical, affordable energy efficiency and renewable energy ideas, devices, and systems at the over 4000 weekly farmers' markets that take place across the USA from Memorial Day to Halloween or Thanksgiving.
The people who attend farmers' markets are a core constituency for green technology and practical applications that save money, energy, and resources. They are likely to be early adopters who can spread those possibilities into the community. I've done energy demos at my local farmers' market and know that a renewable energy company sometimes participates in the year-long weekly market near Providence, RI. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples out there.
Do energy education weekly at as many of those 4000 weekly markets as possible and over one growing season energy use and attitudes would change significantly. See Mr Franklin's Folks for one vision of how this might work.
Cambridge, MA has been doing monthly weatherization barnraisings since the summer of 2008. Since then, at least 18 other nearby and distant communities have begun their own weatherization parties. Still other groups are doing solar barnraisings in at least four states, that I know of:
Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in NH
Seacoast Area Renewable Energy Initiative in the Piscataqua region on Maine and NH
Coop Power in Western MA
Grid Alternatives in CA
During the last energy crisis in the 1970s, there were groups that did solar barnraisings too. Some of those solar devices are still working.
Personally, I'd like to see a weatherization barnraising on the White House. With the full participation of all the TV carpentry shows, "This Old House," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the HGTV and DIY channels.... It could make for some great PSAs and instructional audio/video and the power of the President's bully pulpit (plus a little of his own sweat equity) would go a long way toward generating the mass movement toward energy efficiency that we should have undertaken thirty years ago.
3. Energy education could also work in conjunction with emergency preparedness and civil defense. Start with the basics - flashlight, cell phone, radio, an extra set of batteries.... all of which can be powered with a couple of square inches of PV. Add a hand crank or pedal power back up and you have reliable production of AA and better electricity day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
Solar IS Civil Defense, pure and simple.
It is also a significant rise in the standard of living for the 1.6 or so billion people in this world who don't have access to electricity today.
In fact, there are organizations where you can join a buy one give one program and support coordinated development in the developing world with civil defense in the developed world.
4. 350.org's next event is an international climate change work day on 10/10/10. If groups going to farmers' markets weekly and doing monthly energy barnraisings monthly organize with that October 10 in mind, that event could make an even bigger splash and larger impression on the general public.
Weekly energy demos at farmers' markets and monthly energy barnraisings could also continue after that one single international work day so that the work continues and we all change the way we use energy, from wasteful and polluting to efficient and clean.
5. Build an information network so that different groups working on these issues around the world can share experiences and speed innovation.
I'd like to see an online solutions architecture established to make good energy ideas go viral. There are already some sites which are useful resources:
Appropedia
Open E Farm
BuildItSolar
Solar Cooking Archive
It is way past time for the changes we need. We shouldn't wait for politicians or business to change. We should start making the changes we need ourselves. Begin the parade and there will be plenty of "leaders" ready to run to the front of the line.
The people who attend farmers' markets are a core constituency for green technology and practical applications that save money, energy, and resources. They are likely to be early adopters who can spread those possibilities into the community. I've done energy demos at my local farmers' market and know that a renewable energy company sometimes participates in the year-long weekly market near Providence, RI. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples out there.
Do energy education weekly at as many of those 4000 weekly markets as possible and over one growing season energy use and attitudes would change significantly. See Mr Franklin's Folks for one vision of how this might work.
Cambridge, MA has been doing monthly weatherization barnraisings since the summer of 2008. Since then, at least 18 other nearby and distant communities have begun their own weatherization parties. Still other groups are doing solar barnraisings in at least four states, that I know of:
Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in NH
Seacoast Area Renewable Energy Initiative in the Piscataqua region on Maine and NH
Coop Power in Western MA
Grid Alternatives in CA
During the last energy crisis in the 1970s, there were groups that did solar barnraisings too. Some of those solar devices are still working.
Personally, I'd like to see a weatherization barnraising on the White House. With the full participation of all the TV carpentry shows, "This Old House," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the HGTV and DIY channels.... It could make for some great PSAs and instructional audio/video and the power of the President's bully pulpit (plus a little of his own sweat equity) would go a long way toward generating the mass movement toward energy efficiency that we should have undertaken thirty years ago.
3. Energy education could also work in conjunction with emergency preparedness and civil defense. Start with the basics - flashlight, cell phone, radio, an extra set of batteries.... all of which can be powered with a couple of square inches of PV. Add a hand crank or pedal power back up and you have reliable production of AA and better electricity day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
Solar IS Civil Defense, pure and simple.
It is also a significant rise in the standard of living for the 1.6 or so billion people in this world who don't have access to electricity today.
In fact, there are organizations where you can join a buy one give one program and support coordinated development in the developing world with civil defense in the developed world.
4. 350.org's next event is an international climate change work day on 10/10/10. If groups going to farmers' markets weekly and doing monthly energy barnraisings monthly organize with that October 10 in mind, that event could make an even bigger splash and larger impression on the general public.
Weekly energy demos at farmers' markets and monthly energy barnraisings could also continue after that one single international work day so that the work continues and we all change the way we use energy, from wasteful and polluting to efficient and clean.
5. Build an information network so that different groups working on these issues around the world can share experiences and speed innovation.
I'd like to see an online solutions architecture established to make good energy ideas go viral. There are already some sites which are useful resources:
Appropedia
Open E Farm
BuildItSolar
Solar Cooking Archive
It is way past time for the changes we need. We shouldn't wait for politicians or business to change. We should start making the changes we need ourselves. Begin the parade and there will be plenty of "leaders" ready to run to the front of the line.
Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous behaviors that will avoid extinction.
R. Buckminster Fuller
We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at all.
Lew Welch
The only war is the war against imagination.
The only war is the war against imagination.
The only war is the war against imagination....
the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it.
Diane di Prima
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Zero Net Energy House Winner Is Positive Net Energy House
At the NESEA Building Energy Conference in March, the winner of the MA Zero Net Energy House contest was announced. It is the Stephens/Clarke Residence in Montague, MA which was built by Bick Corsa. The 1152 square foot, 3 bedroom house cost $180,000, was monitored from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010, and produced two and a half times the energy it consumed. This Zero Net Energy House is actually a Positive Net Energy House.
The house is highly insulated, with R42 walls, R100 ceiling, and stands on an R30 insulated slab. It is powered by 4.94 kW of solar electric panels, solar air and hot water heaters, and passive solar heat gained through U-.17 windows (about R 5.8, according to my calculations). There is a mini-split air source heat pump serving as a furnace and demand hot water heaters as back-up in case it's needed.
The house used 1,959 kilowatts for the entire year with an annual energy bill for heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, appliances, and lighting of $392. They sold 2,933 kilowatt hours worth $586 back to the grid over that same period.
Tina Clarke, a Transitions Town trainer, and her husband, Doug Stephens, moved into their new home in December 2008 and will be using it in conjunction with Greenfield Community College and Franklin Regional Technical High School to educate builders and students in green jobs and green building techniques. Information about these courses can be found at http://www.gcc.mass.edu/media/docs/cg/community_ed.pdf"
In an interview with the Springfield Republican, builder Bick Corsa said the things that are most successful at lowering utility bills in a new home are tried-and-true design techniques.
These are also techniques that can be adapted to existing housing as well.
Case Studies of Zero Net Energy Houses and Deep Energy Retrofits
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeeaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Energy%2C+Utilities+%26+Clean+Technologies&L2=Energy+Efficiency&L3=Zero+Net+Energy+Buildings+(ZNEB)&sid=Eoeea&b=terminalcontent&f=doer_Zero_Net_Energy_Buildings_Case_Studies&csid=Eoeea
Zero Energy Intelligence
http://www.zeroenergyintelligence.com/blogspagehtm/?p=1284
Boston Herald article on the Stephens/Clarke residence
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1238366
Solar IS Civil Defense
cross posted to bluemassgroup.com, dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, and greenmassgroup
The house is highly insulated, with R42 walls, R100 ceiling, and stands on an R30 insulated slab. It is powered by 4.94 kW of solar electric panels, solar air and hot water heaters, and passive solar heat gained through U-.17 windows (about R 5.8, according to my calculations). There is a mini-split air source heat pump serving as a furnace and demand hot water heaters as back-up in case it's needed.
The house used 1,959 kilowatts for the entire year with an annual energy bill for heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, appliances, and lighting of $392. They sold 2,933 kilowatt hours worth $586 back to the grid over that same period.
Tina Clarke, a Transitions Town trainer, and her husband, Doug Stephens, moved into their new home in December 2008 and will be using it in conjunction with Greenfield Community College and Franklin Regional Technical High School to educate builders and students in green jobs and green building techniques. Information about these courses can be found at http://www.gcc.mass.edu/media/docs/cg/community_ed.pdf"
In an interview with the Springfield Republican, builder Bick Corsa said the things that are most successful at lowering utility bills in a new home are tried-and-true design techniques.
“People tend to go for glamorous high-tech gadgets. There is nothing wrong with that stuff, but I tell people to go with the things that pay for themselves. A superinsulated shell for the house; put your money into that. It has no maintenance and it will save you on your heating,” he said.
Also, homes that have lots of windows that face toward the sun, called passive solar heating, will reduce heating bills. In this region, facing to the southwest gets you the most sun exposure.
“Those two things together – superinsulation and passive solar heating – are by far the most effective ways to have a really low-energy house. They are simple things that do their job year after year,” Corsa said....
These are also techniques that can be adapted to existing housing as well.
Case Studies of Zero Net Energy Houses and Deep Energy Retrofits
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeeaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Energy%2C+Utilities+%26+Clean+Technologies&L2=Energy+Efficiency&L3=Zero+Net+Energy+Buildings+(ZNEB)&sid=Eoeea&b=terminalcontent&f=doer_Zero_Net_Energy_Buildings_Case_Studies&csid=Eoeea
Zero Energy Intelligence
http://www.zeroenergyintelligence.com/blogspagehtm/?p=1284
Boston Herald article on the Stephens/Clarke residence
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1238366
Solar IS Civil Defense
cross posted to bluemassgroup.com, dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, and greenmassgroup
Thursday, April 08, 2010
How to Heal the World
It was probably around thirty years ago that I went to a basement apartment near Harvard Square for a presentation by two people visiting from Auroville, a religious community and ecovillage near Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India. The man and woman talked about their work planting trees and reforesting the area. They showed slides, focusing on a method they derived by trial and error to provide water for their saplings by molding bunds, small catchment basins just downslope from the tree to gather rainwater so that it could soak down into the roots. They talked about following erosion gullies upslope to where they began and using stones and pebbles to stop the erosion at the source. They said that after more than a decade of work, the weather had noticeably changed in the region and the seasonal rains had returned.
How did we get into this mess?
A little bit at a time and because everybody does it.
We get out of it just
that same way.
4/23/01 John Berry, in conversation
Greening the Desert Follow-Up, Six Years After the Funding Ran Out
"The Man Who Planted Trees" is Jean Giono's allegorical story of a shepherd who plants a forest. It is beautifully written and, unfortunately, fiction. You can read it in English and en Français or watch the Academy Award winning animation.
John Todd's Ecological Design for Appalachia won the first Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge. He proposes using biological waste treatment to clean up coal slurry and tree planting and biomass production to restore the landscape and provide jobs.
One Man Creates a Forest in India shows that what Giono imagined can happen in reality. Abdul Karim is a living Elzéard Bouffier.
Auroville is still planting trees and you can help build their Sadhana Forest.
There is also the Green Belt Movement in Africa founded by Wangari Maathai.
Trees for the Future promotes tree planting all around the world.
Arbor Day varies from state to state but usually happens in April.
crossposted to dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, bluemassgroup.com, and greenmassgroup.com
How did we get into this mess?
A little bit at a time and because everybody does it.
We get out of it just
that same way.
4/23/01 John Berry, in conversation
I think about this as I plant my garden. I remember John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed; Jean Giono's story of Elzéard Bouffier, "The Man Who Planted Trees;" John Todd's vision to restore the devastated mountains of Appalachia. I think about ecological design instead of geoengineering, the small seeds planted and tended over time with modesty and patience rather than the heroic technology of global scale for immediate results and long-term unintended consequences.
One of my favorite videos is this short piece on Greening the Desert, a permaculture installation in Jordan near the Dead Sea. It reaffirms my faith in the idea that "You Can Fix All the World's Problems in a Garden."
One of my favorite videos is this short piece on Greening the Desert, a permaculture installation in Jordan near the Dead Sea. It reaffirms my faith in the idea that "You Can Fix All the World's Problems in a Garden."
Greening the Desert Follow-Up, Six Years After the Funding Ran Out
"The Man Who Planted Trees" is Jean Giono's allegorical story of a shepherd who plants a forest. It is beautifully written and, unfortunately, fiction. You can read it in English and en Français or watch the Academy Award winning animation.
John Todd's Ecological Design for Appalachia won the first Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge. He proposes using biological waste treatment to clean up coal slurry and tree planting and biomass production to restore the landscape and provide jobs.
One Man Creates a Forest in India shows that what Giono imagined can happen in reality. Abdul Karim is a living Elzéard Bouffier.
Auroville is still planting trees and you can help build their Sadhana Forest.
There is also the Green Belt Movement in Africa founded by Wangari Maathai.
Trees for the Future promotes tree planting all around the world.
Arbor Day varies from state to state but usually happens in April.
crossposted to dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, bluemassgroup.com, and greenmassgroup.com
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
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.
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.
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