Factor E Farm Blog

- Guest post by Benjamin Gatti from our Solar Turbine Google Group.

This post features an eye-opening perspective on photovoltaic (PV) panels. The claim is: it is very unlikely that PV will ever be cheap. Personally, I’ve been following PV since 1995. I’ve heard predictions to the tune of “$1/watt PV panels coming out next year” since then. This has not yet materialized. My recent personal experience in self-made solar panels is that it cost us $2/watt in materials just to turn donated solar cells into panels – which is the same cost as we are aiming for in our complete Solar Turbine concentrator solar power (CSP)project. Moreover, my bottom line statement is: if it costs $2/square foot for mirrors, and $40/square foot for silicon PV material – I do not see any chance that solar cells will compete with concentrator solar power, if both yield approximately 10% efficiencies. This thinking stems from our discussions within, and motivation behind, the solar turbine project. Read the following guest post, discussion, and see if you can poke any holes in the arguments presented. We don’t have any final words here – just thoughtful perspective for worshippers of PV.

(PS. I must add that while I presently don’t believe that ‘solar panels will ever be cheap,’ this applies only to the ‘pure capitalist’ mode of production. I do believe that innovative, participatory, open source, community-supported manufacturing scenarios – supported by a mindset that values clean energy over war – can succeed in making affordable PV a reality.) (more…)

- Guest post by Benjamin Gatti from our Solar Turbine Google Group. This post features an eye-opening perspective on photovoltaic (PV) panels. The claim is: it is very unlikely that PV will ever be cheap. Personally, I've been following PV since 1995. I've heard predictions to the tune of "$1/watt PV panels coming out next ...

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Friends, the latest developments on the Solar Turbine project, outside of the documentation clips in Factor e Live 6 and Factor e Live 7, are ambitious. We are presently leaning to mirrors and a modern, high-recirculation ratio uniflow steam engine as the heat engine of choice. The long-term motivation for the latter is to not rely on industrial detritus – such as some turbine from another application or non-modern steam engine from other suppliers. The long-term supply of the former is uncertain, and performance and cost of the latter are in question.

The results of the Solar Turbine convergence are promising. We got hands-on insight into what may or may not work – and that is what informs our direction. We still have a promise on the whiteboard – of $3/W as Milestone 1 with a 5% efficient heat engine – and $1.5/W as Milestone 2 with a 10% efficient heat engine. Talk to me or join the Solar Turbine google group if you are interested in understanding these cost predictions deeply.

Here’s the good part. The above predictions rely on off-shelf mirrors at $2/sq foot. In the long term, we have to replace this cost, which now constitutes over 50% of the cost in our design, with industrial swadeshi mirrors. I predict a mirror cost of 50 cents per square foot in this scenario. Critics, of course, say that we can never beat commodity production costs for mirrors – but I think open source production can, given that sand or glass cullet feedstock is readily available – and the commodity production process is fraught with inefficiencies of global supply chains. Plus, mirror production is old technology – we’re not talking about rocket science.

In short, we will pursue mirror fabrication and high-recirculation ratio uniflow steam engine fabrication in house. If you know anything about these topics or know people that do – help us with the engineering. Here we have great opportunity for open source engineering – on a topic of huge relevance to societal well-being. Concentrator solar power is in vogue – read the commentary in the next post.

Friends, the latest developments on the Solar Turbine project, outside of the documentation clips in Factor e Live 6 and Factor e Live 7, are ambitious. We are presently leaning to mirrors and a modern, high-recirculation ratio uniflow steam engine as the heat engine of choice. The long-term motivation for the latter is to ...

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Here is video documentation for making the first two parabolic reflectors for the Solar Turbine project:

The Solar Turbine Convergence is here – Elliot and I are continuing on the next reflector version, and we are picking up Stuart today.

We’d like to note that we ran into a serious snag with using 4′ wide parabolic receivers in an east-west array of reflectors – which is our latest implementation concept. Daily solar motion changes the distance of the solar path to the receiver – such that at best, it appears we can get 2x concentration from parabolic dishes – such that the image size at 9 am or 3 pm will be half the reflector width – or 2 feet here. If you are familiar with this dilemma – helps us – and consider joining the Solar Turbine group. It looks at present that we’ll be returning to 1 foot wide slats instead of these 4 footers. We are going through one design issue after another – which is good. We’ll see how far we’ll get by the end of the Convergence on Sep. 3. We are presently aiming at about 50x concentration.

Here is video documentation for making the first two parabolic reflectors for the Solar Turbine project: The Solar Turbine Convergence is here - Elliot and I are continuing on the next reflector version, and we are picking up Stuart today. We'd like to note that we ran into a serious snag with using 4' ...

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The trick for making solar thermal electrical generation a reality is to reduce the cost of the solar thermal collector system to absolute minimum. Why? If one familiarizes oneself with the costs of putting such a system together – it becomes apparent why solar thermal electrical generation is not widely used. As elegant as solar energy is – the costs of putting together a working system are prohibitive.

The potential is there: 4 megawatts of solar radiation hit every acre of the Earth’s surface.

I just went through the design that we’ve been evolving in the Solar Turbine Yahoo Group – where after some heated design debates it looks like we’ve got an absolute winner. We now have a system design that costs $750 for all the materials for intercepting 30 kW of solar energy and focusing it on a 2” diameter receiver tube – with 48-fold solar concentration ratio. This cost does not include the heat engine or controlled feed-water delivery. (more…)

The trick for making solar thermal electrical generation a reality is to reduce the cost of the solar thermal collector system to absolute minimum. Why? If one familiarizes oneself with the costs of putting such a system together - it becomes apparent why solar thermal electrical generation is not widely used. As elegant as ...

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We are preparing for several guests here in mid August to build the open source solar concentrator power system. Today, Benjamin from the Solar Turbine email group sent an updated design on the solar reflector mounting:

In the August convergence, we’re looking to generate steam production data from this concentrator system. We’re predicting steam for 500 watts of useful power on the first run. The system cost is $2.5k – or about $5 per installed watt. This results from overall 3% efficiency, out of a theoretical maximum of 40% (Carnot efficiency = (500K-300K)/500KJ). We think  that we’ll achieve 15% efficiency after optimization -  or $1/installed watt costs. That is very promising.

We need help on sourcing a heat engine and tracking down other knowledgeable individuals for the email group. Our implementation will be the best teacher – and I think a heat engine will appear from somewhere once we have steam data.

We are preparing for several guests here in mid August to build the open source solar concentrator power system. Today, Benjamin from the Solar Turbine email group sent an updated design on the solar reflector mounting: In the August convergence, we're looking to generate steam production data from this concentrator system. We're predicting steam for ...

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We have finally completed our water well-drilling adventure. Everything that could went wrong – amounting to a 2 month delay – but the bottom line is that we have a 4 inch-bore well that we estimate is giving us 1000 gallons of water per day based on the pumping that we have done so far. We have yet to see whether the well dries up in late summer heat. See our second Factor e Live video (forthcoming by tomorrow) for more documentation on the well.

This means that we are at a great transition at Factor e. The next step is full time work on LifeTrac – and we aim to have it driving in 2 weeks and fully operational with loader, rototiller, and other implements, in 1 month. Our primary attention will go to this – as it is the backbone of the infrastructure for CEB construction – to start on July 15. That’s when the great promise of quality, dirt-cheap building will be tested in practice – as the first example of high-caliber, appropriate technology equipment developed at Factor e Farm. We will then be able to tell if our CEB machine, The Liberator, is worthy of its name.

The next point to mention is the solar turbine- we’re planning ground-breaking on August 15. Our design specification is an affordable, kilowatt-scale, scalable, solar concentrator electric system based on a linear (scalable) reflector Fresnel design of 16-fold solar concentration:

(source). Based on proven techniques, we are predicting exciting results. The bottom line prediction – using overall 8% efficiency (nothing spectacular) from solar input to electric power – is 3 kW of electricity from a 4×10 foot array of mirrors. If we succeed at this, then we will have a breakthrough in solar power generation. What I mean is that none of the ideas utilized are in any way original – but we are putting them together from the systems design perspective – and resulting costs are 2-10 times lower than any system that we are aware of, at any scale of operation. Our calculations show a materials cost of $2000 for the reflectors and collector – plus another $500-$7000 for the turbine, generator, and balance of system. We are talking of costs for solar electricity at 80 cents – $1.30 per installed watt. This is cheaper than coal power plants. Add the labor costs on top of that if you are doing this for outside markets – and we may be talking of replicable power systems that bring about the promise of solar economies.

The trouble is, we’ve heard predictions of cheap solar for many years – but solar cells are still at $5/watt and $10+ for installed costs – and no better alternatives are emerging, except at large scales. How are we any different? We’ll see – but we do have open source methods working for us here. Please continue reading below about our quest for the world’s first replicable, open source solar turbine package. Here we discuss heat engine choices – the universal missing link in such projects. (more…)

We have finally completed our water well-drilling adventure. Everything that could went wrong - amounting to a 2 month delay - but the bottom line is that we have a 4 inch-bore well that we estimate is giving us 1000 gallons of water per day based on the pumping that we have done so ...

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Here is an overview of our overall program of action:

On the CEB Press for building – we are presently building the LifeTrac tractor – an agriculture, construction, and general utility device. This device is remarkably pedestrian in appearance – so one has to appreciate the details to grasp its versatility and lifetime design features. A big shipment of most of the parts for LifeTrac is coming in tomorrow – the Freight truck missed today. The status of the Solar Turbine is preparation for construction in August. On the digital fabrication front, CNC torch table is in progress – http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Torch_Table. As far as the CNC-controlled Multimachine – we are preparing an implementation path.

Here is a big point to consider, if you haven’t heard it before. If we can generate a repository of open source design – then with computer controlled fabrication capacity – people can download design and produce anything anywhere. The key is the repository of open source design – plus availability of a low cost multipurpose production capacity – run with open source computer control software. That is the promise of digital fabrication – decentralization of production and, thereby, peer production. You can read more about peer production and free enterprise here. We are contributing by implementing the torch table and multimachine – both coupled to LinuxCNC.

The basic idea on progress is – as soon as collaborators surface to move the project forward – progress accelerates. Our main need is technical collaboration and per-project visitors to Factor e Farm to implement the technical components one by one – towards creating a replicable option of an Unplugged Lifestyle.  (more…)

Here is an overview of our overall program of action: On the CEB Press for building - we are presently building the LifeTrac tractor - an agriculture, construction, and general utility device. This device is remarkably pedestrian in appearance - so one has to appreciate the details to grasp its versatility and lifetime design features. ...

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Factor e Farm would like to announce that we are finally in the process of converting our operations from generator-based electricity to 100% solar electric.

Thanks to Ronny’s behind-the-scenes work while he was with us this winter, we recently received a donation of solar cells from Ersol. Ersol is a German wafer and solar cell manufacturer, based in Erfurt, which specializes in silicon-based photovoltaic products.

If you are interested in their products, please contact Nicole at global sales – nicole.thierfelder@ersol.de.

The solar cells that we received are sufficient to run all of our needs: internet, lights, shop tools, juicer, etc. We look forward to running a freezer without having to turn on the generator. Perhaps we could even start to keep up with washing our clothes with our old-style Philco Bendix washer-wringer from the 1950s.

The Lister 3 kW electric generator – which we ran on oil, diesel, and biodiesel, will stand proudly as ever-ready backup and as a showpiece.

If you observe our digital fabrication program for CEB machine production a few posts ago – you’ll see that the solar cells are its central power source. This is 100% off-grid eco-industry – and not bad for the humble beginnings of Factor e Farm.

We have a large forklift battery pack to support the operations. Our present challenge is to frame the solar cells into panels so that we can charge this battery bank. We are looking for help from any of you who have framed or encapsulated cells into panels – we’d like to learn from your experience. The solar cells look like this from the front and back:

(more…)

Factor e Farm would like to announce that we are finally in the process of converting our operations from generator-based electricity to 100% solar electric. Thanks to Ronny’s behind-the-scenes work while he was with us this winter, we recently received a donation of solar cells from Ersol. Ersol is a German wafer and solar cell ...

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A reality check is a bitter sweet pill. The sweetness comes from the truth and the bitterness is in the swallowing.

This week I received a letter from an inventor. An inventor who loves the world but sleeps on a couch. When I asked him about collaborating, the response was uncertain: Although he knew that the open source method would bring his invention to people faster, he wanted to be compensated for his work and therefore was going to get a patent. Would we still collaborate with a “closed” business?

Since we agreed that open source method was better for humanity, I responded with ways in which the open source method could also benefit the inventor.

His reply left me with a tough pill to swallow. His father was an open source inventor. He gave the world the Winiarski rocket stove. In return, other organizations received millions of dollars in grants, while he receives little more than social security. And while he does bask in the love of helping thousands, it doesn’t put bread on his table.

His contribution to society is honorable, but how do we take it to the next level, where inventors too are financially honored for their work?

In the conventional invention world, one inventor is the mad scientist, devoting all spare moments and spare change to breathing life into an idea. A patent or investor may alleviate the financial burden, but it may just as likely leave the inventor high and dry. Check out Don Lancaster’s Patent Avoidance Library.
Open source development is meant to distribute the risk. With many people contributing (albeit some more than others) the risk development burden is shared. At Open Source Ecology, we ask people to contribute financially, intellectually, and organizationally. (Feel free to contact us for more info– simply leave a comment below.)

Ask and you shall receive. And if you don’t receive, prepare yourself further, and ask again. I think many people who make great contributions to the world, to their communities, and to their families, forget about themselves. They forget to meet their own basic needs. They fail to ask others for help.

Asking for contributions of any sort is easier today than ever before with the internet. Explain your story. People listen.

But it does require persistence, paperwork, and publicity. Not everyone has the time, energy or skills for this. We hope that through our collaboration efforts, we are able offer an alternative. For example, if an inventor has a very worthwhile product, which he/she invested much time, effort, and resources personally and is reluctant to open source their work (perhaps for very legitimate reasons), than we (the great global we) could decide whether or not to collaboratively fund an effort to “buy out” the inventor to and put the product into the open source domain. This is not the ideal situation. (Open development is ideal.) But ideal isn’t always practical, especially as we are in a time of transition.

We believe that ultimately, people must produce goods. It feels funny to say this when we live in a time that is burdened with “stuff“. But the truth is very few real goods are being produced. We sorely need producers of wholesome, responsible products. That means the inventor, too can be a producer.

Indirectly, the inventor(s) may benefit through publicity. Someone may offer paying work as a result of the inventor(s) open source developments. This method works for some people. But it has no guarantees. This method alone would certainly not pay for a world-class research and development budget, at least not in a timely manner.

One way to solve this conundrum would be an open source product label. This might be used to guarantee to the consumer that a percentage of the price is going back into research and development. A label could guarantee that the product is made justly– similar to a fair trade or organically grown mark. A label would let the consumer know what version of a design they have and who produced it, who designed it, and who changed what in the design.

These are explorations in creating the open source economics of the future. What are your thoughts? What is the best way to neocommercialize? What other challenges must be overcome? What solutions are brewing?

Also, for those who are interested, preliminary designs for the Solar Concentrator are posted on the wiki. Feel free to add your comments and insights.

A reality check is a bitter sweet pill. The sweetness comes from the truth and the bitterness is in the swallowing. This week I received a letter from an inventor. An inventor who loves the world but sleeps on a couch. When I asked him about collaborating, the response was uncertain: Although ...

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A friend of ours stops in from time to time unannounced, often with a technical question on his mind. Before the weather turned so cold, he asked if we had any ideas for keeping his pond open for the winter. We had nothing intriguing to offer; just a cheap way to run an electric line for heating.

Open water is a concern for farmers in winter because when ponds freeze over, cattle have one less place to get water. The practical outcomes are: more work for the farmer (finding a way to get water to the cattle), the cattle are weaker because they lack water or the cattle are concentrated in a smaller area, potentially damaging the quality of the pasture.

I’ve heard about farmers manually breaking the ice for the cattle and I’ve seen articles on windmills, which keep the water flowing, reducing the risk of freezing. Others use an electric heater, but often getting electricity to the pond is tricky and costly. After reading about solar concentrators all week, I wonder if anyone is using one to keep their pond open in the winter. It seems like the perfect tool for the job.

Although our primary goal is to produce electricity, concentrators are diverse tools. Among the uses I’ve seen so far: solar cookers, food dehydrator, water distiller, wood gasification, lighting dark rooms, hot water, in-floor heating, and heating swimming pools.

What I’ve found so far, is that not many people are building linear concentrators. I found just two examples that are similar to our plans. Ausra is an Australian company who is planning megawatt linear concentrator electrical plants. Complete with thermal storage, they expect to supply energy during low-sun, high demand (ie. nighttime) periods without difficulty. They can compete with fossil fuel generation because of the low cost of the concentrators. Close to the ground, the concentrators are easily cleaned and do not require as much structural supports against high winds as other designs.

A small scale design was built called the “aquaflector.”

This is probably the best representation of what we plan to do. The inventor is hoping to eventually use the concentrator to power PV cells. Although he has not worked out the details of electrical generation, the aquaflector does produce steam.

Although none of their designs match our plan, the philosophy of www.solarfire.org matches ours intimately. They have published open source designs for two solar concentrators. They are open to improvements and encourage others to make and sell them. Moreover, they are working on a site for collaboration on all types of solar projects. They see a larger vision than simply supplying people with solar. However, that’s their entry point. We hope to collaborate with them more closely in the future.

A friend of ours stops in from time to time unannounced, often with a technical question on his mind. Before the weather turned so cold, he asked if we had any ideas for keeping his pond open for the winter. We had nothing intriguing to offer; just a cheap way to run ...

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