Sunday, May 10, 2009

Green Fest will Use Solar Stage

Many of the programs and performances at Green Fest will take place on an outdoor stage with amplification provided by the portable solar sound system created by Crow Weaver and the Native Earthling Band in affiliation with the Center for Environmental Sustainability in Ithaca.

The solar sound system collects sunlight via three photovoltaic panels. Each SunWize SW115 panel outputs 115 watts of power, for a total of 345 watts. The panels provide direct current at 16.7 volts. The SunWize panels have a "rated" working life of about 50 years, at which point the cells will still put out 85% of their design power.

The solar panels are wired into a charge controller that regulates the current supplied to the battery. This is the heart of the Solar Stage. The charge controller keeps the battery topped up while protecting it from being damaged by overcharging. The life of the battery is directly impacted by the quality of the charge controller. The Solar Stage uses the Solar Boost 2000E from Blue Sky Energy.

For more information about the solar stage, visit http://nygreenfest.org/solarstage.html

1 comment:

Martin said...

This sounds like an awesome setup. I recently read about a similar idea in the Austin area. Their system is more elaborate, providing sound and lighting needs for events and performances and being portable and more or less turn key for the event organizers.