Solar / Wind / Electric Projects

Electric Vehicles - Tired of waiting for electric vehicles to reach the market, and knowing the vested interests in suppressing their development (see "Who Killed The Electric Car?"), we have taken matters into our own hands, and assembled the parts to begin conversion of existing serviceable vehicles to electric [link to our Google proposal].  We plan to use surplus industrial motors (240V 3phase), and upgrade batteries as they become available.  We have a variety of pulse width modulating motor speed controllers which we hope to adapt to the task, unless one can be purchased within our budget.  In the future we would like to see wheel motor development which allows for simple hybridization to electric for existing vehicles.

Electric Rototiller 2005 - Simple and very useful conversion from a two-cycle gasoline engine to 120vac.

Wind Energy Harvest - We often get windy periods when there is harvestable wind energy. We are collecting DC motors & Props for wind projects.

Vintage Solar Panels - These panels dating to the 1970's utilize Fresnal lenses which focus light on relatively hot solar cells.  The array of 7 panels generates about 1100 watts, and can be used to charge batteries on an equally vintage golf cart, demonstrating the principle of solar powered transportation.  We will scale this up to electric vehicle conversions which will commute about 75 miles round trip.

Grid Tie Solar PV System - We investigated purchasing 2000 watts of new solar PV panels to do a grid tie PV system which would meet about 75% of TerraSante Village's domestic needs.  The outlay was $14,000, the rebates subsidies around $11,000.  Payback we came up with roughly 8-12 years on the $3000 difference.  We are looking forward to a grant or donation for this.  We hope that credit/loans for such ventures becomes US government policy plan to "stimulate the economy".

Solar Hot Water 2004 - This simple "tank in a box" generates about 3 hot showers most winter days.  We plan to double that capacity.  In summer there is endless HOT water, when of course everybody wants cold showers.  There should be a way to turn this hot water heat into motion.  Did someone say Minto Wheel?

Solar Box Oven - This solar oven utilizes recycled materials mostly.  It will track sun when finished.  We are aiming for 175c/350f temp.

Heliocoil Pool Heaters - These donated black tubing heaters were designed to warm pool water in cold months from cold to swimmable.  We plan to tweak them to make hot water in winter, our highest census time.

Fresnel Solar Saute - Saute for the kitchen.  Cutting out the carbon (propane) needed to cook, cooking to be done during daytime.

Mirror Array / Boiler / Steam Engine - This as yet to be completed mirror array will focus light on a boiler to generate steam for a steam engine to run a generator.  We have surplus hydraulic receivers which we think will serve for boilers, and defunct air compressors we plan to revalve and run in reverse for steam engines.  (see Renovation Nation video)

Solar Sweat Lodge - We will use the sun to heat rocks for daytime sweating cleansing.  We hope to complete a fresnel box, with a focal point below at ground level.

Parabolic Dish Furnace - We have collected a number of old satellite reciever dishes which can be coated with solar-reflective material to generate heat at the focal point.