With the sun pounding the bejesus out of the Imperial Valley 340 days a year, solar power is a no-brainer.
For the first year, the output of the Cinnabar Charm's trusty rusty Siemens 125W panel into 360AH of Kirkland deep-cycle marine batteries and a cheapo Black & Decker 1000W inverter, plus occasional use of a Honda EU1000i generator was completely sufficient to power everything - lights, workshop, tools, computers, sound, CB. The summer heat, however, proved to be more challenging than the passive, low-tech cooling methods at my disposal could possibly handle, so upgrades were necessary.
The first addition was a Honda EU3000is generator, capable of powering a small 110VAC MIG welder and 12,000-BTU air conditioner, chosen for its known reliability and performance in extreme conditions (thanks to the Black Rock Desert Extremely Hot and Dusty Generator Research Corp.) Next came a Xantrex PROsine 2000W inverter-charger-transfer and 500 AH of Concorde Sun Xtender AGM batteries, which could power all devices on the premises for a few days on a full charge and made good use of the the 3000W generator as a standby source. The PROsine is just about the finest and best-behaved device I have ever owned. Its AC output is cleaner than anything I've ever seen, including the Honda EU series outputs, its AC transfer function is smooth and seamless, and its user interface, though quite complex, is very intuitive and easy to navigate.
Finally came the mid-sized photovoltaic array. 12 BP 150W panels (total 1.8KW,) two Outback FlexMax80 MPPT charge controllers, fuses, cheap heavy-duty surplus disconnects and cable were obtained from The Sun Works at very decent prices (thanks Mike!!) The AGM battery capacity is to be extended to just over 2,000 AH, which would provide survival power (ie air conditioning) for a week without power income, in case of extensive damage or theft to the pv array. The panels are mounted flat for space economy and stealth. Approximately 1KW of wind power is to be added, perhaps in the fall of 2008 (I nearly -literally- died putting up the pv panels in 118F heat; I have *hopefully* learned my lesson about working in the summer.) For now the DC system is constrained to a very copper-intensive 12VDC because that's all the PROsine is equipped to deal with. 48V would have been my choice, but for now I am content with what I have. Soon this site will display live and logged pv generation data and statistics (once I get the East Jesus server going, which may be weeks, months or a year from now....)
Outside of the summer months, when large amounts of power are needed for air conditioning, there will be a huge surplus of daily electrical power. So, the next step will be to obtain or construct electrically powered vehicles (bikes, scooters, rails, cars) and keep them charged with the overflow juice. A small vehicle with a range of 12 miles would get me to Niland and back (for the post office, beer, propane and groceries;) a slightly larger vehicle with a 30-mile range would get me to Calipatria and back (for hardware, laundry, banking and donuts.) Just for fun I'd like to convert one of my art cars to run on hydrogen and slowly build up a supply of H2 via electrolysis, so that I can go on a long trip once every six months or so...(?) Additionally, I will convert the two Honda generators to run on wood gas, which will turn my junk mail, coyote scat and garden waste into fuel to slowly and steadily provide even more carbon-neutral electrical power. In the end, I want to be 100% fossil-fuel-free.
There have been few moments in my life as deeply satisfying as throwing the switch to allow the completed solar array run my camp - silently, cleanly, and for free. Solar power is just plain sexy.
Next steps: