What Solar Equipment to Power Disaster Recovery?

MailtoDelete asks: "I work with a team that is involved with disaster recovery efforts after natural disasters, like Katrina. We have satellite based equipment that allows us to bring data connections up in devastated areas to help bring the infrastructure back online to serve the public. I have looked at the main networking equipment and determined that the power draw is usually low (about 50 watts) and was curious about the possibility of using a small solar setup to power the equipment rather than running a 8-10kw generator to do the same work (after all, fuel may be scarce). Can anyone suggest a good site or book that I can look into that would help me learn more about what equipment would best serve my purpose? There is a small business in town that does this sort of work, and they have suggested a 550 watt array with the controllers, etc for about $5100. Does this sound reasonable?"

Comments

The simple solution

[Propaganda13]

Buy a smaller generator.

Yamaha EF1000iS 900W generator with .66 gallons of fuel has a runtime of 12 hours with 25% load. $700

Solar equipment

[r.garrison1]

I am not certain if this meets the needs specific to your purpose, but I have been looking into an off-grid vacation residence. I found a good bit of information at:

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/

One other site I found interesting: http://store.altenergystore.com/Kits-Package-Deals /Sunwize-Power-Ready-Systems/c692/