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What Solar Equipment to Power Disaster Recovery?

Posted by Cliff on from the soak-up-the-sun dept.

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?"

6 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. What if it's cloudy? by JoshJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'll need some sort of long-term energy storage if you want to use solar power, as solar power doesn't function in a cloudy situation. The OP mentioned Katrina- if you're in a hurricane and need disaster recovery stuff, there's usually still a general rainy period (though not hurricane-strength) after the brunt of the hurricane hits, as well as the fact that it may just plain be cloudy. To be quite frank, I'm not sure why you think "solar power" in conjunction with disaster recovery- you want something that will function under almost any condition, not function under "good" conditions and have to rely on a backup power source when the conditions are bad.

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  2. Re:Two words. by locokamil · · Score: 4, Funny

    RTFA, dude.

    He's looking for solutions for after the hurricane. ::ducks::

  3. Marine Equipment by Cycon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Try taking a look at marine equipment. There's plenty of resources online, or if you're near the coast try a boating shop. The larger the better. They're experienced with all sorts of weather-hardened equipment (what if the rain comes back?) that generates power in that range. Be aware you'll likely need some sort of battery system to store the juice and provide output at a sustained rate. You'll probably want to look into deep-cycle batteries.

    Basically there's people on the go all over the world with no steady supply of power or fuel who have to be prepared for intense weather conditions - they're called yachties (c:

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  4. Try a combination by Colin+Smith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yachts use solar and wind power to charge their batteries, it's a combination which works. Take a look at vertical axis wind turbines as well as photovoltaics. They can be cheap and run at low wind speeds.

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  5. The simple solution by Propaganda13 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Buy a smaller generator.

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

  6. Solar equipment by r.garrison1 · · Score: 3, Informative
    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/