Energy Empowerment Workshop – Solar Electric

On the June 7th and 8th weekend several local and international participants attended the Energy Empowerment Solar Electric workshop taught by resident renewable energy expert Brent Crowhurst.  The weather was fantastic and aside from the black flies the event was a huge success.

Day one started with a little background on the Falls Brook Centre appropriate technology program and refreshed everyone’s memory regarding the many environmental and energy related issues in the province of New Brunswick and around the world.  The group was then taught some basics of electricity and the fundamentals of solar photovoltaic cells.  Everyone had great fun exploring voltage, current, power, and energy with small sample solar arrays and a couple of digital multi-meters.

The second half of day 1 explained the components of off grid buildings and Netmetered buildings including the costs and tradeoffs involved.  The day ended with attendees setting up in front of several laptop computers to go through the process of sizing the solar electric system for an off grid home using a spreadsheet.  The output of the spreadsheet was how many batteries, and solar modules were required given a particular power consumption pattern.  Participants could explore how modifying their consumption patterns or design criteria could change the size requirements of their system.

Day two started with a little talk on resource evaluation and how one can predict how much solar electricity they could produce at their chosen site.  Then the group went through a lead acid battery maintenance activity where the details of prolonging the life of a battery bank in a safe and informed way were explained.   The rest of the day was spent assembling a 300 Watt solar photovoltaic array and mounting and connecting it into an existing 24 volt battery system at the Falls Brook Centre biodiesel production facility.

For more information on the Energy Empowerment workshop series and to find out how to register check out www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/empowerment.