Highlights of the 2003 Solar Village

The 2003 Solar Village at the Taos Solar Music Festival was a great success: Some of the Festival crew told us they thought is was the best yet! Thanks go out to the many folks who made it all happen. NMSEA volunteers included Ben Luce (who also organized the Village itself), David Dobry and friend Linda, Naishing Key, Robert Griffin, Monte Ogdahl, Brock Taylor, Mike Prine, Karlis Viceps, Cath Hale, Ben Remmers, Scott Evans, Larry Mapes, Sarah Montegomery & friends, Jim and Quinn Palmer, and Katje Erickson and family. Also thanks to the Taos Fest organizers Dawn Richardson and Dan Sherman,  all their gang. These folks have done a great job in structuring this event for four years in a row now! We hope we didn't forget anybody! Many people put in long hours setting up, manning, and packing up exhibits. Ben Luce slept in the NMSEA tent all weekend to guard the Village, and endured cold water bucket showers each morning (next year we plan to have a solar hot water shower...).

Here is what the main stage at the festival looked like (the Festival obtained a donation of wind power from Kit Carson Electric, the Taos area electric coop, to cover the power used by the main stage):

Odes Caster and Family from Sacred Power brought up a large solar trailer to power the solar stage (thanks to Odes and David Melton for lending this). Their system appears at right in this image:

Leaving the Festival area, one encounters the Solar Village entrance:

The Solar Village exhibits inside were as follows:

NMSEA exhibits included:

  • The "SunChaser" Mobile Education Unit (solar hot water/radiant floor, PV system running small appliances, display boards about solar and NMSEA's history), 
  • Air 403 wind turbine, 
  • Solar water distiller, 
  • Small pv system with an energy efficiency comparison, 
  • Passive home model and guidelines, 
  • Solar power water pump, 
  • Toy Solar Cars
  • A sampling of books on renewable energy, 
  • Hydrogen fuel cell and a full display on hydrogen technology, 
  • A passive solar and landscaping design display (by Katje Erickson). 
  • Finally, NMSEA had a very complete solar cooking area, featuring a fridge powered by PV, four sunoven box cookers, two parabolic ovens, and two homemade ovens - a "SunStar" box cooker and a "Bernard Panel Cooker". Cookies, sweet potatoes, and solar perked coffee were the main offerings. All the NMSEA exhibits were carefully labeled, and there were many display boards, mounted like nature trail signs, that explained various technologies, from global warming to fuel cells and solar hot water systems.

Here is an image of some of the NMSEA exhibits (Ben Luce, in the orange cap, is explaining the fuel cell demo. The fuel cell presentation is at center, the SunChaser at left upper, and the solar water pump at left lower):

Here is Monte Ogdahl with his new toy solar car display (a demo area, not shown, was positioned to the right of the tent, where people could try out the cars):

On the way to the Solar Parade before the event, we picked up an (extremely large and heavy) solar tree "sculpture"  (a beautiful metal tree will pv modules for leaves) lent to the Village by Dharma Properties Inc, which we arduously lashed to the SunChaser, and set up in the Village (thanks to Allen Vigil and Alberto Amura for lending this):

Here are some images of the solar cooking area: In the first image, Brock Taylor, who manned the area much of the time, appears on the left, and Cath Hale, who also manned the area a lot, appears on the right, on either side of some satisfied attendees:

The Solar Powered Fridge:

Non NMSEA exhibits

These included John Hunt of Alternative Home Builders brought his powerful solar trailer, which he uses to power his tools while building sustainable straw bale homes (which he also provided info on). This unit powered the fridge pictured above:

Carson National Forest showed pictures of their remote systems:

Iasis Living Machines brought a Solar power vehicle, and displayed photos and info about their water purification technology:

 Michael and Ivory Lipkan showed their Linear City Concepts urban design model. The Energy Conservation and Management Division of NM Energy Dept distributed info about renewables and energy efficiency and related policies. Red Pueblo Construction showed info on their beautiful and eco-friendly adobe plasters:

Valverde Energy (a new Taos Solar company) displated a very nice solar hot water system and provided info on their new thermal/pv installation company:

 A firm called "Men in Green" displayed their soil restoration technology. Mountain and Mesa Construction showed their water harvesting technology. A nonprofit project called Local Energy from Santa Fe provided info and a model about their ideas on switching to local energy sources. Althouse Inc. showed a biodiesel vehicle and also had info on blown in cellulose insulation. Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety discussed nuclear pollution and proliferation issues with attendees. Rastra New Mexico Corp showed rastra construction technology (a highly energy efficient building approach utilizing recycled styrofoam and concrete):

Taos Land Trust distributed info and garnered support for their local efforts to protect Taos area wildlands. Spaceship Earth brought a fascinating, huge, inflatable earthball with satelitte pictures of the earth (they hung this on the Village path and children spent all weekend spinning and looking at it):

  Taos Solar dot com gave out info about their solar mortgaging plans. EcoVersity from Santa Fe distributed info on their sustainable technology education programs. Renewable Energy Partners showed a Ethanol powered vehicle. And finally, the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy and the New Mexico Public Interest Research Group distributed info on environmental policy issues.