This document is a brief description of a project proposal- background on the proposed project, the incomplete prospectus (in progress) and an outline of topic areas it can grow into.
Ro Piekarski originally organized this project for a specific location, the Desert Sanctuary Campus of the World University, near Tucson, Arizona. We believe this project is suited to be reproduced, site-specifically, in many areas of the world.
It would share a solar model with the world. The developed appropriate technologies will help propel environmentally conscious people into the forefront of community development for the 21st century. We made some tentative adjustments changes to the original to be more generic. So, please keep in mind it is a general outline that would need to be tailored to the specifics of any location, and its intent is not to dictate anything, just to give an idea of what's possible.
This proposal can assist in the evolution of improvements worldwide in "ways of life and means of living." It is a model learning/income center for appropriate technology and construction and sustainability in energy, food production, and other basic needs. This document is a tentative initial proposal for this model. Once the full plan, the vision, is designed, it will eventually be actualized as a prioritized multiple-phase long-term project through cooperative action and the combined mind, energy, spirit, and will of many dedicated individuals and organizations.
There are two resources essential to the realization of these goals: skilled and dedicated people and financial assistance in the form of donations, grants, and in-kind contributions of expertise, materials, equipment, tools, or labor.
Several momentous international factors, such as the approaching Y2K millennium computer crisis, may accelerate this project and impel its more rapid success as a model for duplication. Through personal redirection and cooperation, not competition, people can reach their highest possible potential, and spin-off solar learning communities around the world can become contributors to a self-sufficient sustainable global social order. Similar efforts around the planet can help bring about a new age of highest spirituality and social interaction among an emerging and enlightened humanity blessed with peace, joy, love, and light.
The Sun, the source of all energy on Earth, creates the elements that develop and sustain a diversity of vibrant life forms. Earthly solar energy systems should capture the potential energy of the Sun's heat and light, and for highest efficiency, Earth-Sun relationships are incorporated into these designs. Just as all things on Earth and in the Heavens are interrelated, all forms of a solar energy system- sunlight, wind, water, and biomass-would interrelate.
The twenty-first-century solar-design system of the solar learning project (SLP) would expand on holistic concepts, incorporating both ancient solar wisdoms and improvements in materials and construction made possible through modern technology's environmentally green advances. The ecologically designed SLP will function as a biological organism, with individual cells functioning in cooperation as a complex organism-a system-with the propensity and capacity to cope within the cycles of nature.
The SLP will use these intricate but simple design concepts to weave a pattern that connects all things big and small, living and non-living, to all on Earth, within our Solar System, and throughout the Galaxies and Universes.
The ecology of food will be a focus of the solar learning project. Throughout the development of the project, all learners/workers will contribute to a system that produces the highest quality and nutritionally healthiest food without unnecessarily disrupting the natural environment. This can be accomplished by attending to nature's cycles, keeping native plants growing in their natural setting and cultivating native food crops, and using organic gardening and permaculture techniques for food production, preparation, distribution, and storage.
Air, water, and soil are the basic life-support systems for all life. Plants, the only life-form on our planet that can make food, interrelate with these life support systems, and pure, uncontaminated foods can come only from clean air and water and healthy soil.
Organic food is grown without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, which exhaust the soil and damage the environment. Organic gardening and farming are important structural elements of a permanent agriculture, or permaculture, that can deliver a secure and vital food supply.
Organic food production contributes to building living soil; supplies healthy food richer in enzymes, minerals, and vitamins; protects clean air and water for ourselves and future generations; prevents soil erosion; saves energy; recycles wastes; assists in reversing global warming; aids in preserving wildlife habitats; encourages biodiversity; protects gardeners' health and that of their children; and supports a true cooperative economy. Along with all these wonderful benefits, organic food tastes better.
Organic growing invites you to become a generalist, developing a wide range of skills. At different times in the process, you participate as an agronomist, chemist, entomologist, ornithologist, ecologist, manager, planner, chef, and much more. Organic gardening develops your mind and spirit as it strengthens your body through outdoor aerobic activity and the whole, natural foods that result. These are all skills that can be learned by all who learn/work in developing the SLP.
Phase 1 of the solar learning project (SLP) will include garden complex, solar water pumping, solar cluster dwellings, and income centers.
Study and practice of spiritualization and the philosophies are connected to the Earth. A center of light, where peace manifests in all forms, and love of life and of all creation bonds people and planet to care for the gifts of existence, can be created. The joy of living in harmony with everyone and everything fuels the spirit to share in the energies of the One Energy that sparks the soul and warms the heart to be good, do good and love all, serve all.
Food production will be the most important system of the SLP, with the purest, healthiest food as the ultimate goal. Learner/workers will experience every facet of the complete food system-growing, processing (e.g., solar drying), storing, and preparing. Food production will be multifaceted, with outdoor vegetable gardens and indoor biospheres and greenhouses, both in soil and hydroponic. Cultivated foods such as root crops, leafy greens, herbs, berries, and other fruits and vegetables can be grown in various mediums and at different seasons, depending on their requirements. Outdoor gardens will include desert-trench and raised-bed areas, hydroponics, pond fish farming, and super-green algae such as spirulina. Indoor gardening in solar greenhouses and biospheres will include soil gardens, hydroponics, and aquaculture. Other super-greens such as wheat and barley grass and alfalfa may also be cultivated and processed.
From phase 1 through all the phases of the SLP, growing and harvesting of wild foods and herbs will also have high priority. Besides fish for animal protein, the SLP project will consider bees for honey products and pollination (you've accomplished this already), and goats for dairy and manure. Ducks (again your daughter has done wonders here) can provide eggs while helping to maintain the ecological balance of outdoor ponds: their droppings make excellent fish feed and stimulate the growth of plants that feed the fowl.
Natural landscapes are an integral part of the SLP design, and development should have minimal impact on existing vegetation and terrain. One goal of the SLP is to design structures to fit into the natural landscapes, not alter the landscapes unnecessarily to fit the structures. Indigenous flora have evolved over millennia to survive the climatic and physical conditions of their environment, and are best suited for landscape requirements for buildings and other uses at the SLP. The ecological standard is to save the plant in its original location, if possible; otherwise, to transplant it to a suitable site. Adherence to this parameter is in keeping with the basic environmental principles that the SLP supports in concept and practice.
Plants supply humans with nearly all our needs. Learner/workers at the SLP can forage not only for wild foods and herbs but also for fiber for paper pulp, wood for construction and heat, and for other plant parts for soap, clothing, footwear, baskets, and other natural products. Many uses for native flora can be gleaned from historic and contemporary indigenous peoples. Also, exotic introductions would be investigated and experimented with to determine their suitability and potential for usable products.
Many plants can be grown in water with a nutrient solution and a medium such as perlite, instead of in soil. Hydroponics can substantially add to the potential for organic food production. At the same time, hydroponic gardening conserves water, since excess nutrient-filled water can be drained into aquaculture tanks or pools.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, is the controlled production of fish for food, indoors in tanks or outdoors in ponds. The protein from fish can supplement human and animal nutrition, and their presence supports a symbiotic permaculture environment. The fish, which are fed by nutrients in the water and plants, in turn fertilize the plants and add nutrients back to the water.
A reliable water system is necessary to survival for all life, and an abundant source of good well water is essential. Presently most wells are pumped to a holding tank by electricity produced and distributed by a local fossil-fuel-burning or hydropower utility. To further the principles of energy efficiency, environmental protection, and self-sufficiency, and ensure a secure water supply independent of the uncertainties of the utilities, i.e., possible outages of electricity generation, it will be wise to build a solar pumping station.
Solar pumping using an array of photovoltaic (pv) cells that directly convert sunlight to electricity is a suitable method for regions with abundant insolation, and an independent solar installation dedicated to pumping water is the ideal design. A dc submersible pump can handle the 2 gal/min flow adequate for current needs, but as water requirements increase for food production and learner/workers' direct use, this capacity would not be sufficient. Two types of pumps that can handle all possible growth scenarios are progressive cavity and jack-screw. These pumps have a potential capacity of 45 gal/min from 300 to 560-foot wells. They are 80% efficient and the motors to run them 82%.
The most cost-effective system is a 240-watt pv array of either three 80-watt or four 60-watt modules set on a Zomeworks tracker, which automatically follows the sun's seasonal paths across the sky. Manufacturers' warranties are 20-40 years, but most pv arrays have an even longer expected lifetime. They require minimal maintenance and repair, and any refurbishing that is needed is easy and inexpensive. They are also relatively portable, if it's necessary to relocate them to a different application. The Zomeworks tracker has a 10-year warranty, and many have been in operation for over 20 years with a low rate of repair.
Reusing all household water from bathing and washing dishes and clothes conserves water. Secondary water can be reused directly or saved in tanks for later use for irrigation of plants and other non-human needs. For this reason, only phosphate- and other chemical-free soaps and cleaners should be used. While environmentally safe "green" products are adequate, the long-range goal is to furnish as many necessities as possible from native and introduced non-competitive plants.
Soil gardens will need a deep-root drip-irrigation system both inside in solar greenhouses and biospheres and outside in trenches, beds, or solar pods. This will conserve water, make maximum use of water requirements, and promote steady, vigorous growth for healthy plants and abundant crops. The "wholly" water generated by the Vortex Water Rebuilder (see below), which promotes human well-being, can also be used for irrigation and hydroponic systems.
Solar composting toilets will be installed in new dwellings. Existing flush toilets will be connected to an on-site treatment facility that uses plants and helpful bacteria to purify raw sewage for use in the gardens, aquaculture, and pond replenishment.
In time, outdoor ponds would contribute to food production and create freshwater ecosystems at the SLP. The animals and plants would mutually support each other, and treated sewage water would replenish water lost through normal evaporation.
Passive solar design and construction, or retrofit of existing structures, is necessary, efficient, cost-effective, and aesthetic, and a primary goal for appropriate development. Passive solar design combines ancient techniques with modern products to tap the sun's energy to heat and cool buildings and generate electricity. Passive systems use little additional energy to convert the sun's energy into usable energy, unlike active systems which use considerable energy input to move or assist the solar energy, or hybrid systems which combine passive and active designs. When choosing a solar energy system for particular structures and applications, the advantages of each are matched to the needs.
Even in Tucson, temperatures occasionally drop below freezing during the colder months. Although these cold snaps are mild compared to other regions, at these times buildings do need to be heated. During the extreme heat of the warm season, buildings need considerable cooling. Creative solar design can supply nearly 100% of these requirements for heating and cooling and generating electricity.
Since throughout the year the sun is in the southern sky for most of the day, the orientation of structures along an east-west axis is the single most important design feature to maximize solar energy input. Other complimentary features, which support substantial reduction in resource and energy use and minimal impact on the land and its plants, are cluster development-private dwellings with shared walls, natural landscaping for shade and wind sheltering/deflection, and selection of readily available, and hence efficient to use, indigenous building materials. Earth-construction techniques, using abundant, low-cost native soils as a building material for regular and super-adobe bricks, rammed earth, and earth plastering, have been used throughout the history of building. Earth structures could be the best choice for the SLP because earth-based building materials are both good thermal mass and good insulators, and they are strong and durable.
Solar applications will be planned for new construction and retrofits throughout the project's development. This is a critical component for a community where worker/learners will be living with the natural cycles and warmed, cooled, and energized by the Sun.
Biospheres and greenhouses are essential support structures for organic food production. A biosphere is an ecologically balanced indoor environment for growing plants and animals which also provides living space for humans; a greenhouse is an indoor space used mainly for growing plants.
While both will be mainstays of the SLP, a passive solar biosphere ark (BioArk) is proposed for phase 1. The BioArk will contain symbiotic arrangements of plants and animals with areas for soil and hydroponic gardens, aquaculture tanks, animal habitat, and living quarters and laboratory space for research. The BioArk will be a central structure linked to other nodes for food ecology and appropriate technology, such as the kitchen/dining facility, outside gardens, ponds, and water and energy resources.
In addition to the freestanding central BioArk and greenhouses, many of the new structures and some of the existing buildings will be retrofitted with attached sunspaces or greenhouses to help provide heat, light and healthy living conditions for people and plants. And, to extend the growing season of the outside gardens to year-'round production and further protect them from animal pests, low-cost, flexible-use passive solar growing pods with portable, stackable glazed covers will be used seasonally. These solar pods, which are solely for plants, not for humans to work in or occupy, conserve water and energy, and are prolific producers of crops.
Although the BioArk will need a substantial budget, it is vital to the development of the SLP. A reasonable estimate would be approximately $30 U.S. per square foot, and the area of the BioArk is dependent on its final design.
There are several ways to generate electricity through solar applications: wind, hydro, biomass, concentrators, and photovoltaics (pv, silicon wafers that directly convert sunlight into electricity). Although centralized solar-power plants are as feasible today as power plants that use polluting and hazardous fossil and nuclear fuels, for greatest efficiency electricity using solar energy should be generated on-site. Point-of-use solar generation eliminates energy waste by minimizing transmission losses and reducing equipment costs. Wind and photovoltaics are the most likely means to generate solar electricity for this project.
It wasn't long ago that wind machines pumped water in every rural setting. Because of the frequency, sustained duration, and velocity of the wind at the site, wind generators can effectively capture and utilize solar energy for producing electricity and pumping water. Wind turbines can generate power for clustered dwellings, and wind machines for pumping water would be a backup system for the two wells.
Many existing and planned structures are suitable for pv's, which can be aesthetically integrated into a building's design. An average home, on average, would need about a 1-kilowatt (kw) pv system to run its lights, appliances, and other electrical demands in and around the building.
With approximately 300 sunny days a year and relatively clear atmospheric conditions, the greater Tucson area is a premier location for solar energy installations, providing maximum gain for any solar application.
The Crystal Resonator is used for individual healing through attunement of the chakras to the planet's vital vibrational forces.
The Vortex Water Rebuilder generates the highest quality, most healthful water from any drinking water source. It is a fountain of vital life force that creates a vibrant vortex which makes both good and bad water wetter and better. This resurrected water is further enhanced by vibrations that connect with the Higher Self. The effectiveness of this device has been recognized and explained by many users. It does much more than filter out particulates and dissolved contaminants. A native shaman said it reconstructs "broken" water, water that has been contaminated, adulterated, and otherwise mis"treated." A biochemist determined that it releases free electrons and/or somehow renders impurities inert and allows the body to cleanse itself of them. It is comparable to the "living water" in which babies are immersed in the womb and which comprises 97% of their bodies for the first year of life. All water is not equal. We need water that can be accepted by our cells to carry out millions of intra- and inter-cellular reactions. This cellular hydration is necessary to sustain our lives while keeping us healthy, active, and at our peak performance.
Small Vortex Water Rebuilders can be distributed throughout Pacific Rim countries and/or several large ones can be strategically placed to generate water for all purposes for which the purest water is needed or desired-drinking, cooking, bathing, cleaning, etc.
There is also now a unique opportunity to both study these and related technologies in a lab-and-research setting and possibly form a cooperative worker-owned business to manufacture and sell these units. Developing a learning environment where minds-on, hands-on experiences are integral to the learning process is a primary goal. Cooperative enterprises of all kinds can be integrated into the plan to generate income to support a learning laboratory for esoteric research and for the learner/workers and the SLP. The Vortex Water Rebuilder and Crystal Resonator exemplify this type of multi-purposeful learning/earning project.
Herbs, a delight and necessity in any organic garden, have a multi-purposeful place in the SLP plan. Both wild and domesticated herbs will be propagated, harvested, and dried to use and sell for their extensive culinary, medicinal, and ornamental values. They can be grown in soil and hydroponically, indoors in biospheres and greenhouses and outdoors in the gardens. Their relative ease to grow, store, use, and sell increases their economic value. Herb growing involves minimal time, effort, and resources for maximum gain in benefits and income.
There are many food cooperatives, natural food stores, and restaurants that would buy fresh and dried herbs, and there are numerous regional, national, and international markets to which the SLP could supply herbs. This is another example of a "right enterprise" that can supply a steady income for partial support of the SLP.
A major goal of the SLP is to preserve indigenous vegetation and promote its ecological uses. Native plants are a natural choice for landscaping buildings, and there is great demand for this vegetation.
updated: 20-Jan-02
You can reach Ro and Joanna Piekarski by e-mail at rojoanna@ihug.co.nz.
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