Highlights of the Year 2002 Solar Village:

The 2002 Taos Solar Music Festival and its attendant Solar Village (organized by NMSEA) were very successful, again, at exposing thousands to solar and sustainable technology in an extremely positive and creative setting. The music was great, the weather was kind, and the attendees were very enthusiastic about solar.

The (truly excellent!) energy exhibits included: 

1) Albuquerque based Sacred Power Inc - David Melton and Odis Castor, provided their great mobile PV and wind power trailer to power the solar stage. The unit got compliments from the Solar Fest organizers, who I think had never seen such a professionally done unit! 

2) The San Juan Energy Trailer, one of the nicest educational PV exhibits anywhere that we're aware of, which was provided and presented by Professor Carl Bickford of San Juan College. Carl is the founder of the renewable energy program at San Juan, one of the few degree programs of its kind in the US. His program's 1200 watt PV trailer features a paragon of code compliant and aesthetic installation, high quality fork lift batteries, and appliances including power tools for demonstration. 

3) The PV installation company Positive Energy from Santa Fe - Allan Sindelar, Dan Rice, Colin Mitchell, and Phil Undercuffler. Their exhibit, which was integrated with the San Juan Trailer (Dan and Colin being graduates of the San Juan program) included photos of their perfectionistically installed systems, a solar powered bubble machine, a solar water pumping exhibit, several recumbent bicycles (including a unicycle), and a great "Rube Goldberg" machine for the kids (one of those fun contraptions where little balls go through a crazy sequence of mechanical transitions, like rolling, bouncing, up elevators, etc). 

Here is a photo of the two exhibits just described (with visitor):

Postive Energy and San Juan College trailer

4) The PV installation company Taos Green Solar - Mark Coleman, who displayed some PV equipment and distributed great solar info. 

5) The Santa Fe based Solar Hot Water installation company Golden Sun Solar - Joe Annon and Chris Brewer. They displayed a fully assembled solar hot water system, and also integrated their exhibit with another company's exhibit on water catchment. 

6) The natural water purification company Iasis Living Systems - Alberto Amura and friends, who displayed their beautifully sculpted "Solar Tree" (a large metal tree sculpture incorporating PV panels) as the centerpiece of the Village. 

7) Carson National Forest, who brought a photo exhibit of the their remote solar installations. 

8)  The Taos based company Energy Innovations - Daniel Stewart, who showed their very effective insulation system utilizing recycled styrofoam and cement (similar to the "Rastra" system, but without the inner cement and re-bar network, and hence more highly insulating). 

9) Taos Alternative Builder John Hunt, who displayed his PV power trailer (which he uses to power his tools at job sites), and also photos of his many fine passive solar alternative homes (utilizing straw bale, pumicecrete, and other approaches). 

10) Taos based BlueHorse Studios - Molly Nieman, who showed her natural plasters on straw bale. 

11) Green Party gubernatorial candidate David Bacon, who displayed his biodiesal volkswagon. 

12) Suncooker.com's parabolic solar ovens - which were displayed as part of the NMSEA solar cooking area by Brock Taylor for the second year in a row. This also included Suncooker's specialized solar cookware. 

13) Taos Electricity Coop Kit Carson Electric - who signed up people for their green power program (which imports Wyoming wind power).

We (NMSEA) had our SunChaser unit and other displays, including PV, solar hot water, solar hydrogen fuel cell exhibit, a hands on energy efficiency exhibit (comparing compact fluorescent and incandescent bulbs), books, photos, and guidelines on passive solar design, general NMSEA and renewable energy literature, solar water pumping, water distilling, solar cooking, toy solar cars. This year our displays were much more thoroughly labeled, we had a wind-proof and well labeled literature rack, a full 28 page laminated exhibit on hydrogen and fuel cell technology (created by Ben Luce, who also coordinated the Solar Village for a second time). 

Our written display boards, which resemble the blurbs one finds at national park exhibits and which debuted at last year's Village, were shown for the second year (they survived a whole year!). 

Monte Ogdahl debuted his new "micro" solar cars, about the size of a small cell phone, which promise to revolutionize his attempts to make solar cars widely available to kids (these new cars have very low cost, are made from readily accessible components, and have very high durability). 

Our fuel cell exhibit was extremely popular again this year, probably due to its novelty, and several people, especially Robert Griffin, made valiant attempts to explain it over and over to the large crowds that gathered around it. 

Finally, rounding out the solar exhibits were a number of others on a variety of social issues, including those related to adoption, the death penalty, preserving open areas near Taos, gubernatorial candidates, healthy lifestyles, use of bamboo as a building material (there was a spectacular vehicle artistically decorated all over with bamboo), vegetarianism, and more.

We had a great time organizing the event this year, in large part due to the great volunteer contributions of NMSEA members. It was remarkable to us how people were able to contribute the particular critical skills, time, or things we needed. We would especially like to acknowledge: 

Steve Stephens, for bringing our big tent from Albuquerque, helping set things up, talking to attendees, and for sleeping in the tent two nights (which helped with security, allowing me to sleep more soundly). 

Rose Kern, for helping Steve load up at the Storage Locker and for providing Fiesta Flyers. 

Marlene Brown, for checking in exhibitors on-site, distributing tickets to them throughout the show, talking to attendees, and helping with set up. 

David Dobry for helping set up, talking to attendees, fixing the hot water system, fixing the PV system, upgrading the water pumping exhibit, and helping set up the (huge) Solar Village sign (for which he provided a 12 foot pipe on the spur of the moment). 

Monte Ogdahl for bringing his great solar cars, including his new solar micro-cars, and for entertaining and educating everyone. 

Molly Birely, Melissa (Rose Kern's daughter) and Rose for helping to coordinate exhibitor registrations. 

Karlis Viceps and Cath Hale for helping set up, talking to attendees, providing lodging for several of us, and bringing the cookie dough and refrigerator. 

Brock Taylor for once again manning the solar cooking display. 

Donna Fischer for helping with the solar cooking and talking to people. 

Robert Griffin, for explaining the full cell exhibit to literally hundreds of people, and helping with exhibit maintenance. 

Jeremey Mooneyham for bringing the CCAE (Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy) booth and talking to attendees. 

Neal Thielke for bringing a solar water pumping exhibit and setting it up at the Solar Village gate. 

Hopefully we did not forget anyone!

Finally, thanks to the Taos Fest organizers Dawn Richardson, Dan Sherman, and Marcie, Jan and all the gang. These folks have done a great job in structuring this event, and made my job as Village coordinator much easier this year.  

Viva la Solar Fest!