What We Are About
We have two objectives to our DIY Solar PV workshops.
Why Are We Doing This?
The Feed-In-Tariffs are enabling households to buy solar panels; this market has seen huge growth. With a few exceptions such as particular social housing projects and the so called "rent-a-roof" schemes the majority of panels have been put on societies more affluent houses. The workshops help other household’s access solar panels at less than half the price of the cheapest commercial panel, helping to address the growing social inequality in access to affordable clean power.
Secondly, SOLAR PANELS ARE NOT A SOLUTION. This might sound mad coming from a project that is encouraging people to buy solar panels. But without huge reductions in our demand for energy the challenge to meet climate change CO2 reduction targets will be impossible to solve. This is in part because solar panels will only every supply a fraction of our current energy demands. Furthermore if households understand how to use energy and what energy is, they will shield themselves from rising fuel costs. Solar Panels have the potential to be hugely educational. By building a panel in a workshop and learning how to manipulate circuits; power and energy are much more tangible concepts. Because the panels are not Feed-In-Tariff certified they can’t be used to generate money by exporting to the electricity grid. This means people must learn how to connect the panels to their homes and use the power within their homes. The combined effect of making something and using it within your home means a far greater understanding and respect of energy is achieved, leading to reducing demand. Think about it, power comes to you from big power stations... how tangible and understandable is that? Commercial solar panels; someone puts it on your roof for you and its made in a factory, then you stare up at it for a few months then forget about it.
Do They Work?
Yes, is the simple answer. All the materials are reused from somewhere, remember "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Here we are attempting to do the "Reduce" bit, by using "Reuse(d)" materials. So we take glass from double glazers and wood from second hand wood yards. The solar cells are the waste from the solar cells industry; they have slight chips to chunks missing and therefore can’t be used in a certified panel. Their output is proportional to their surface area. So we teach people how to effectively combine the cells. This makes the panels pretty much carbon neutral. A commercial panel is guaranteed up to 25 years. Ours will not last quite this long, for instance to prevent "galvanic corrosion" we "encapsulate" only the most vulnerable elements of the panel. This is a trade off as encapsulation is extremely expensive and we want cheap accessible panels. We modularise the panels, they can therefore be taken apart and upgraded at any time (A commercial panel is a black box and cannot be repaired). It is estimated that the panels will need some love and care every 5 years, in this way our panels last as long as people maintain them for.
We have been monitoring the output of the panels made at various workshops this summer at our Living Lab in Bristol in Bristol. In the workshops we teach people where to source 12 volt recycled batteries and how to conenct their panels to these batteries. And then impoirtantly how to connect lights and appliances to the batteries. Batteries are very carbon heavy so by reusing recycled batteries we prevent mitigating the low CO2 of our panels.
Why Do We Need You To Donate Money?
We don’t want finances to be a barrier to a household attending a workshop, or a workshop leader being able to attend our training workshops. In order for us to provide free and extremely cheap workshops to low income households we need a revenue stream. By donating money will be enabling us to provide workshops for as close to free as possible. You can pledge money through the website
The Experience of Simon White From Stepney Green City Farm:
"Hi Dan,
thought I'd send you updates - so our first workshop was with 2 friends of the farm, basically as a test, and we built a 13v solar panel each - this ended up being far too much work for each person, which ended up leading to me now delivering workshops where we build smaller panels to take home, between 2-5 volt each, and this works much better, isn't rushed, and is generally better. We now have two 50w 14.4 volt solar panels at the farm, which we built with some volunteers, which we are in the process of hooking up to power a chick heat lamp (an eco 12v 50w one!), and provide us with lighting in the tool and feed sheds, miles away from the mains.
So for the first "proper" workshop I delivered (i.e. to the general public!) I was fully booked with 6 people (our space to build the isnt huge), and 3 days before 4 people pulled out. I then changed the method of registration so people have to pay the full whack to register, and advertised in a rushed fashion on the internet. Within 3 days i had so much interest, I was fully booked and set another 2 dates, both of which are now fully booked. I am also going to Transition Pimlico/ Brixton to run a workshop with their group after... so all in all its going well! So far have taught 14 people how to build them, with 27 more people booked to come on courses."
Supported By....
UnLtd provided the inital start up capital to get this project underway, thanks so much to UnLtd and their continued support
- To reduce the cost of solar panels and enable low income households to gain access to empowering solar PV technology as there is a growing divergence between those who can afford renewable power.
- To utilise the potential these technologies offer in reducing household energy demand. Energy demand reduction is possible when people have a greater understanding and relationship with these technologies.
Why Are We Doing This?
The Feed-In-Tariffs are enabling households to buy solar panels; this market has seen huge growth. With a few exceptions such as particular social housing projects and the so called "rent-a-roof" schemes the majority of panels have been put on societies more affluent houses. The workshops help other household’s access solar panels at less than half the price of the cheapest commercial panel, helping to address the growing social inequality in access to affordable clean power.
Secondly, SOLAR PANELS ARE NOT A SOLUTION. This might sound mad coming from a project that is encouraging people to buy solar panels. But without huge reductions in our demand for energy the challenge to meet climate change CO2 reduction targets will be impossible to solve. This is in part because solar panels will only every supply a fraction of our current energy demands. Furthermore if households understand how to use energy and what energy is, they will shield themselves from rising fuel costs. Solar Panels have the potential to be hugely educational. By building a panel in a workshop and learning how to manipulate circuits; power and energy are much more tangible concepts. Because the panels are not Feed-In-Tariff certified they can’t be used to generate money by exporting to the electricity grid. This means people must learn how to connect the panels to their homes and use the power within their homes. The combined effect of making something and using it within your home means a far greater understanding and respect of energy is achieved, leading to reducing demand. Think about it, power comes to you from big power stations... how tangible and understandable is that? Commercial solar panels; someone puts it on your roof for you and its made in a factory, then you stare up at it for a few months then forget about it.
Do They Work?
Yes, is the simple answer. All the materials are reused from somewhere, remember "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Here we are attempting to do the "Reduce" bit, by using "Reuse(d)" materials. So we take glass from double glazers and wood from second hand wood yards. The solar cells are the waste from the solar cells industry; they have slight chips to chunks missing and therefore can’t be used in a certified panel. Their output is proportional to their surface area. So we teach people how to effectively combine the cells. This makes the panels pretty much carbon neutral. A commercial panel is guaranteed up to 25 years. Ours will not last quite this long, for instance to prevent "galvanic corrosion" we "encapsulate" only the most vulnerable elements of the panel. This is a trade off as encapsulation is extremely expensive and we want cheap accessible panels. We modularise the panels, they can therefore be taken apart and upgraded at any time (A commercial panel is a black box and cannot be repaired). It is estimated that the panels will need some love and care every 5 years, in this way our panels last as long as people maintain them for.
We have been monitoring the output of the panels made at various workshops this summer at our Living Lab in Bristol in Bristol. In the workshops we teach people where to source 12 volt recycled batteries and how to conenct their panels to these batteries. And then impoirtantly how to connect lights and appliances to the batteries. Batteries are very carbon heavy so by reusing recycled batteries we prevent mitigating the low CO2 of our panels.
Why Do We Need You To Donate Money?
We don’t want finances to be a barrier to a household attending a workshop, or a workshop leader being able to attend our training workshops. In order for us to provide free and extremely cheap workshops to low income households we need a revenue stream. By donating money will be enabling us to provide workshops for as close to free as possible. You can pledge money through the website
The Experience of Simon White From Stepney Green City Farm:
"Hi Dan,
thought I'd send you updates - so our first workshop was with 2 friends of the farm, basically as a test, and we built a 13v solar panel each - this ended up being far too much work for each person, which ended up leading to me now delivering workshops where we build smaller panels to take home, between 2-5 volt each, and this works much better, isn't rushed, and is generally better. We now have two 50w 14.4 volt solar panels at the farm, which we built with some volunteers, which we are in the process of hooking up to power a chick heat lamp (an eco 12v 50w one!), and provide us with lighting in the tool and feed sheds, miles away from the mains.
So for the first "proper" workshop I delivered (i.e. to the general public!) I was fully booked with 6 people (our space to build the isnt huge), and 3 days before 4 people pulled out. I then changed the method of registration so people have to pay the full whack to register, and advertised in a rushed fashion on the internet. Within 3 days i had so much interest, I was fully booked and set another 2 dates, both of which are now fully booked. I am also going to Transition Pimlico/ Brixton to run a workshop with their group after... so all in all its going well! So far have taught 14 people how to build them, with 27 more people booked to come on courses."
Supported By....
UnLtd provided the inital start up capital to get this project underway, thanks so much to UnLtd and their continued support
