PCEV Intentional Community

PCEV Intentional Community

pcev@hub.manialabs.us

Discussions and decisions related to forming a permaculture, cohousing, ecovillage following solarpunk ideals.

Location:: Kitsap County, WA

USA

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:44:11 -0800

PCEV Intentional Community

pcev@hub.manialabs.us

@HydroponicTrash Yes, I'm actively creating an intentional community. My goal is to apply #solarpunk principles along with combining #cohousing, #permaculture, and #ecovillage ideas.
I intend to minimize our energy demand after electrifying everything and then deploy sufficient PV panels and batteries to provide that energy. Your autonomous solar project seems better suited for some one-off, smaller projects around the community.
In addition, I'm also a sailor and have converted my boat to an electric auxiliary. I now need to work on a PV charging system for the motor and the house battery bank.

show all 5 Comments

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:48:26 -0800

HydroponicTrash

hydroponictrash@kolektiva.social

@pcev Wow that sounds amazing, I would love to follow along and help in any way I can. Been really wanting to do the same thing for a while now and that all sounds awesome. Can't wait to see things grow!

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 20:32:35 -0800

PCEV Intentional Community

pcev@hub.manialabs.us

@!HydroponicTrash How shall we discuss your autonomous solar project then? I presume it will be easier in real-time via audio or even audio/video than via text? You mentioned a "guide" too, so I could read that first.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 20:46:03 -0800

HydroponicTrash

hydroponictrash@kolektiva.social

@pcev Yeah a zoom call might be in order, way easier to talk rather than type!

Ah yes, so here is a guide to making DIY off grid solar setups:https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridsolar
The core idea can scale down to very small - maybe one off projects to power a couple things, all the way up to more community microgrid scale. The same ideas carry over, just about how much power needs to be generated.

That ties into building autonomous communication networks, because in order to power them you need a way to give everything electricity, https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridinternet
(Don't need to read it but that article hinges on creating renewable forms of electricity to make things run)

This article goes over some of the use cases/ideas/speculations on what building stuff like this this might look like: https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridserveruses

So in that article I talk more about what it would be like if we did create autonomous community microgrids with solar (or other renewables) and how that would be the foundation of building other autonomous actions like making a community intranet or a regional or global people owned and controlled internet along with other actions like helping to create autonomous housing by being able to build anywhere without the need for grid power. There are alot of other actions that are made easier when baseline infrastructure is taken care of. Making a community microgrid of solar power or other renewables, or breaking it up so each home or building can generate it's own power, that all makes doing other things way easier. Same with building water, sewage treatment and food infrastructure, they act as the core for other things to grow.

Check out those articles and see if they answer some preliminary questions. There will always be things to discuss though, like for instance, is it better to create larger scale solar power stations to basically recreate traditional grid power? Or is it better for each building to generate it's own power and require less expensive equipment and more resiliency, obviously some downsides to that too. All stuff that can be tailored to your circumstances.

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 07:38:39 -0800

PCEV Intentional Community

pcev@hub.manialabs.us

@HydroponicTrash I read through your offgridsolar page last night. Your solution is very similar to what I built when I lived in the Sierra Foothills of California.
Due to the risk of wildfire, caused equally by the ongoing drought conditions and the negligence of the electric utility, the electric frequently shutoff electricity for days at a time when the wind blew. I built a #DIY #solarpunk solution for this, with four 150 Watt PV panels, the same MPPT charge controller you're using, six Lifeline AGM batteries, a sine-wave inverter, and a propane-fueled generator. The four panels would produce enough energy to keep the fridge and freezer running, the well water auxiliary pump pumping, all of the network and computer equipment operating, and a trickle to recharge the batteries. The batteries were enough to keep the computers, fridge, and a few lights going overnight. The generator was used in the morning to recharge the batteries and on really cloudy days. I didn't run the generator overnight because it was so damn loud. I did have to make a sonic baffle for when we encountered several cloudy days in a row.
The four panels were on mobile frames, so I could keep them constantly pointed directly at the sun. That made a huge difference in how much energy they generated.

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 08:44:06 -0800

HydroponicTrash

hydroponictrash@kolektiva.social

@pcev Woah I love the design of the frames and the fact that you can roll them around. That's awesome. Great idea with the backup generator. Been thinking about some ways to supplement solar during bad emergencies, we get alot of sun in Texas but there have been times where the solar can't keep up.

With kinda the self sufficiency idea, been looking into growing algae for making biofuel for local production. So instead of having to have backup diesel or fuel, or hope that you can get fuel in an emergency or bad weather, having the ability to create fuel onsite. Pretty cool stuff, though there is alot that goes into it. I really want to try it out small scale. Or like a wood gassifier system that can run a backup generator.

That's pretty amazing, California is beautiful.