yes, of course, excellent history! On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 8:18 AM, George Mokray <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thought you might be interested in this story of self-help solar. > > ------------- > > In 1983, a couple of years after the second of the 1970s oil shocks and at > a time when petroleum prices were relatively low, in a village near Graz, > Austria, in the province of Styria, a farmer and an engineer led a group of > 32 people in building simple do it yourself solar heaters. They said, "Our > primary aim was to build a collector that was inexpensive and easy to build > for every one of us. Having become aware of the finiteness of natural > resources, we also aimed at avoiding all material waste in constructing the > collector. Other important aspects were the saving of energy, environmental > protection, and community building. Everybody was expected to build their > own collector in order to be sufficiently familiar with its function.” > > By the end of 1984, two more self-building groups with more than 100 > participants were needed to meet the local demand for such solar heaters. > By 1986, the do it yourself groups were producing more collector surface > area than all the commercial suppliers in Austria. In 1987, the first > build-it-yourself guide was published and in 1988 the Association for > Renewable Energy (AEE) was founded to institutionalize the group build, > self build, do it yourself solar movement which now included about 50 > groups and more than 1,000 participants. > > By the end of 1998 there were 360,000 m2 of solar collector area and about > 30,000 household solar hot water heating systems built by the do it > yourselfers, out of 100,000 private household solar systems with 1.3 > million m2 of plate collector surface in all of Austria. For a decade and > more, do it yourself, self-build groups dominated the Austrian solar > industry and the model was exported to Switzerland, the Czech and Slovak > Republics, and Slovenia. > > From 1986 on, the self-build group leaders met monthly and improved the > heater designs based upon practical feedback from users and builders. They > met with manufacturers, examined their products, and placed bulk orders to > produce solar installations for their members and participants at very > competitive prices. The self-builders developed a new method to integrate > solar collectors directly into the roof and expanded the solar hot water > systems into space-heating or combination systems as well which became more > cost-efficient and popular as building insulation and air infiltration > standards rose in the 1990s. It is estimated that 50% of all the new solar > systems in Austria are now designed to serve both hot water and space > heating needs, making it the leading market for solar combination systems > today. > > A do it yourself group starts with an introductory lecture and a trip to > existing self-built solar systems. The construction groups work with the > help of technical leaders to build finished solar water systems. The > average life of a construction group is usually three to four months. The > most remarkable characteristic of the members of the self-help group is > that farmers and part-time farmers seem to be the largest adopters. > > Although the solar companies originally saw self-build groups as amateur > competition likely to botch the solar systems and installations, the > success of the self-construction movement made solar more popular and > certainly more visible. Today, Austria has one of the highest penetrations > of solar thermal energy systems in the world and Austrian solar collector > producers are market leaders in the European market with one third of all > solar systems sold there coming from their factories and workshops. > > I first learned about the Austrian self-build cooperatives in the > magnificent Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy by John > Perlin (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2013 ISBN 978-1-60868-132-7) and > followed his footnotes to Michael Ornetzeder and Harald Rohracher's > original work: > User-led innovations and participation processes: lessons from sustainable > energy technologies > Energy Policy 34 (2006) 138–150 > > http://www.musiklexikon.ac.at:8000/ita/ita-papers/Ornetzeder_Rohracher_Energy_Policy_2006.pdf > Of solar collectors, wind power, and car sharing: Comparing and > understanding successful cases of grassroots innovations > http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:685433/FULLTEXT01.pdf > > Back in the day, in the late 1970s, I started something called the Solar > Work Group in the Boston area. It was a group of people who met together > once a month or so to build simple solar devices. We built a couple of > water heaters out of copper sheet and tubing, helped a friend fix up his > attached solar greenhouse, and projects like that. At about the same time, > the anti-nuclear movement was warming up in Western MA anbd in Southern NH > over the proposed Seabrook nuclear power plants . The Solar Work Group > rolled into the NE Coastal Power Show, a traveling energy show housed in a > big, old White van, an old bread truck, that went from Maine to Washington > DC, from Pennsylvania to Cape Cod over the next few years as an affinity > group of the Clamshell Alliance, and presented energy efficiency, > renewables, and nuclear energy information to an estimated 250,000 million > people throughout the Northeast. We had a big parabolic trough hot water > heater on the roof and a detachable windmill we could place on top of a > mast on the van. The van itself had a secondary battery that was charged > by the engine as we drove. Solar cookers, hot water heaters, Stirling > engines, buttons, bumperstickers, pamphlets and books, we had more > information than any one person could absorb. > > Also during that time period, another group of us formed the Urban Solar > Energy Association which soon became the "fastest growing" solar group in > the nation. It also had monthly meetings and did solar barnraisings, > building solar attics, greenhouses, windowbox solar collectors, solar hot > air collectors, and solar water heaters. The group went on for a number of > years producing a do it yourself solar hot air heater manual, other > technical reports, and a monthly newsletter. Eventually, it merged with > the MA Bay chapter of the Northeast Solar Energy Association to become the > Boston Area Solar Energy Association (http://www.basea.org) which still > has monthly meetings, lectures and presentations on the solar issues and > technologies of today. > > In the last few years, the Home Energy Efficiency Team ( > http://www.heetma.com) here in Cambridge has been doing weatherization > barnraisings and a number of other communities have begun to do the same. > In five years, HEET has organized more than 225 energy-upgrade work > parties, assisted with more than 50 solar installations, and trained more > than 3,500 volunteers in hands-on skills in saving energy. There have been > other weatherization and solar barnraising groups in Western MA, NH, ME, > CA, and around the country. Perhaps, if they institutionalized and > organized themselves as well as the Austrian solar water heater group, they > could multiply their impact. > > Austria's solar self-build movement has had a significant effect on that > country's energy economics. Can Ukraine do the same? In November 2014, I > saw a BBC article (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29840214) on Roman > Zinchenko and Greencubator (https://www.facebook.com/greencubator; > http://greencubator.info; @greencubator). In that country, with its > energy supply dependent upon Russia, Zinchenko has been organizing > hackathons - "off-grid, solar-powered meetings of an assortment of > programmers, engineers, and bloggers set 'in the middle of nowhere'". > These events give birth to businesses like Ecois.me, an app being tested by > Deutsche Telekom which helps households reduce energy consumption and works > with a sensor installed in the electrical meter, and eCoopTaxi which > combines electric cars, a taxi service, and open energy co-operation as a > business model. Greencubator is also building an "energy torrent", a > platform to encourage open-source energy tech designs and is about to > "retrofit" an existing building in Kiev as a showcase for green > initiatives, an "architectural hackathon." > > Energy is power and power is politics. All these examples are forms of > Solar Swadeshi, the locally productive nature of solar energy, and can fit > within the definitions of Gandhian economics, the formation of a > non-violent economic system. > > Previously: > Solar Swadeshi > > http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html > > Personal Power Production: Solar from Civil Defense to Swadeshi > > http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/10/919251/-Personal-Power-Production-160-Solar-from-Civil-Defense-to-Swadeshi > > Solar Barnraisings > http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/05/470085/-Solar-Barnraisings > > Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater > > http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/07/05/527101/-Old-Solar-1980-Barnraised-Solar-Air-Heater
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