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

What if it's cloudy?

[JoshJ]

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.

Re:Two words.

[locokamil]

RTFA, dude.

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