Solar Exploratorium Opens on the American River

As you can see, the Exploratorium benefited from the artistic talents of Allen Carrozza whose Earth portrait exceeded our expectations by several parsecs! The Moon portrait is even more remarkable and the "Earthrise" behind the Moon is truly outstanding. You must see it. It is rare to find someone who is an expert in solar installation, an artist, a sculptor and who knows what else? Stay tuned for more surprises.


The "timeline" is the final touch as yet to be completed but, as the picture illustrates, certainly is not needed to make this space both entertaining and educational. It will decorate the ceiling and stretch from 4.5 billion years ago and the beginning of our solar system to the present, a span of roughly 60 lineal feet. Our Sun, a medium sized star, is the hero of this saga as the source of energy that has made it all possible. Interestingly, had the Sun been a giant star, it would have burned out ages ago, a victim of its own gravity. Although there is controversy over the exact time of the beginning of the saga, the longest period it can continue is more clear. The Sun will inevitably heat up, become a "Red Dwarf" and ultimately burn out approximately 650 million years from now, a relatively short time on this timeline but a long time by human standards.

If I remember my college biology correctly, the origin of life on Earth is placed on this timeline at approximately one third of its length, making each living species a genetic message and evolutionary legacy 3 billion years old. It is humbling to recall that humans appear in the last millimeter of this timeline. In fact, if the timeline were Mt. Everest, all of human history would be the last few snowflakes.

It is the legacy of "species diversity" that is currently disappearing at a rate that exceeds any known to have occurred in the past. This is in what is now being termed the "Sixth Great Extinction." For comparison, it is useful to recall that the Fifth Great Extinction was the disappearance of the dinosaurs and approximately one third of all species then living on Earth that occurred over 65 million years ago. This extinction took over a million years. By contrast, the Sixth Extinction, if current trends continue, will account for the disappearance of 50% of the all species on Earth by the year 2050. This extinction would be the first massive extinction caused by a single species....us! The primary mechanism is not global warming. Rather, it is habitat destruction, the majority of which is concentrated in the tropics where the greatest number of species on the planet lives.

We hope the "timeline" and the other exhibits will provide food for thought. As has been the case before, the Sun holds the key to many of the potential answers to these challenges. We look forward to your visit and are excited to share these solutions with you.

SEE you soon,
Scott, Allen, Danielle and the MaLode Crew

Photovoltaic Solar Green Energy to Power the SEE

Solar Energy Exploratorium Heats Up

Today we added PV (photovoltaics) to the Solar Energy Exploratorium! Notice the two new PV panels located just above the solar hot water heater that Greg and Charlie are standing next to. As we mentioned last week in this blog, the thermal hot water heater pictured here is capable of pumping out 28,750 BTUs of solar energy and we are pleased to report it is now successfully heating the water for both our kitchens and guide shower.

The addition of the photovoltaic (PV) panels is to provide electricity for the SEE. This PV system is linked to a highly efficient electrolyte "gel" based battery. The set-up has the advantage of being fully portable and truly being "off the grid" from the moment it is plugged in. Unlike a "grid linked system" that depends on external power, this system has no need to be connected to PG&E to provide electricity,

We will use the PV/battery system to power the SEE's computer that will allow our students to do such things as: Estimate the carbon footprint of their home, school or community; Explore educational websites such as the National Alternative Energy Lab; Fire off emails supporting their favorite solar power legislative initiatives; etc!

Needless to say, the excitement has been building around here as the UPS driver delivers new solar toys for the SEE almost every day. Our "hybrid" solar oven is a particularly interesting addition because it combines direct thermal solar heat concentrated by reflective surfaces with electrically generated heat. We can now run the electrical portion of it with our PV / battery system and be entirely solared powered even on cloudy days.

Our solar race cars have also arrived and are quite a hit with the guides who are, after all, just kids at heart. The photovoltaic cell powered image projectors are quite mesmerizing and remind some of us of the Avalon Ballroom during its glory days. We have also been busy using our new planetarium to demonstrate the effects of the seasons, the longitude of ones location, and the degree to which your solar panel faces south to estimate solar energy yields. So far our calculations reveal that based upon our latitude and weather, Californians can replace an average of 73% of their hot water heating energy with thermal solar water heaters. We can also demonstrate that a seemingly very small area of concentrating solar arrays or PV panels located in Nevada would provide enough energy for all the electrical needs of the USA. This is fun stuff!

Today we had confirmation of another exciting development. Soon we will be using our new PV panels to recharge a full size, for real, solar car! This four passenger car is entirely electrically driven, has highway capability, and has the very appropriate California license plate "PLUGRIN". We anticipate using the car to give our students rides on the property to demonstrate that powering a car with the sun really does work. I will make a special trip to Santa Barbara to pick up the car, which is generously being loaned by the famous solar energy enthusiast Dorothy Pierce. Thanks Nana!

Speaking of solar enthusiasts and heros, none of our solar projects would be possible without the expertise and generosity of Allen Carrozza, our solar guru who has loaned us all of the solar panels for educational purposes. Allen loves to share his vast knowledge of solar technology with others and is looking forward helping the River Center spread the word about solar power as part of the Sustainable Practices Institute. We also thank Daneille Fisher and the folks at Grange on Green for their support.

By the way, if you are a schoolteacher, keep in mind that students aren't the only ones that will benefit from our programs. We plan to "teach the teachers" about solar power too. If you would like to "bring on home" the solar energy buzz to your own classroom, what better place to attend a seminar than here on the American River where you can combine your learning with whitewater rafting, camping and other forms of recreation such as petting Charlie the River Dog.

Warm Solar Greetings from the American River,

Scott, Allen, Greg, Daneille and Charlie the River Dog

Permaculture: Sustainable Food for American River Eco Rafting

Growing Organic Food for Whitewater Eco Rafters on the South Fork of the American River

When we established our original garden twenty years ago it was small and located next to the main kitchen. Occasionally the garden thrived, mostly it died, but the herbs, basically a form of weed after all, took over.

In 2007, as part of our Greenhouse Gas Action Plan (GAP), we decided to reinvent the garden. Eating organic, locally grown food makes more "green" sense now than ever and Scotty, who is a gardening enthusiast and majored in Botany at San Francisco State, took the lead. Last season the new eco garden was planted in hay bales (you can see the remnants of these behind Sarah and Scotty in the picture). Given the poor quality of the soil, this turned out to be a brilliant innovation! It worked exceptionally well because it provided a raised surface that gophers did not penetrate, made for excellent drainage, and almost entirely eliminated the need for soil preparation. Sarah contributed her knowledge of green argiculture practices acquired at Humboldt State University where she was involved in their eco composting program. Tomatoes and squash did well, but the bell peppers got too much sun and went down hard.

Building on last year’s effort, this season we have set the long term objective of achieving a “permaculture”. This increasingly popular concept combines organic farming techniques, such as composting and integrated crop selection, with green landscape architecture and eco farming techniques to achieve sustainability. Permaculture is more of a process than a destination and it will take several seasons and a big team effort to achieve substantial results.

Scotty is the leader of our eco permaculture team which now includes allies from the Garden Valley “Grange on Green” (see our blog article on this group for details). Two particularly knowledgeable Grange participants are the owners of Redbud Farms, Martha Cox (Master Gardener) and Dr. Dave Cox(retired UC Davis Ag Professor) who are hosts of a gardening show on KFOK 95.1 FM on Saturdays and are local experts with decades of experience. They did a site visit/consultation and suggested the size of the garden be many times greater than last season and be located in a more favorable location on an area of "Auburn sandy loam soil" with a ph of 6.1 (who knew?). Pass the lime please. Martha donated some seeds as well- Thanks!

Another helpful suggestion was made by Allen Carrozza, our ever energetic solar expert from Grange on Green. He donated solar panels that will heat water and circulate it under the garden to warm the root zones of the plants. This can increase the rate of growth by 140%. If you look carefully at the "American River Gothic" picture of Scotty and Sarah above, you will notice a large, black, rectangular object behind Scotty and Sarah- this is a plastic solar panel of the type commonly used to heat swimming pools. The round black object behind the panel is the 600 gallon tank that will not only serve as our rainwater recapture reservoir next winter, it will store the water heated by the solar panels and help keep it warm both because of its mass and also due to its passive "black body" solar energy collecting properties.

To help us get an earlier start next Spring, Danielle Fisher, the sparkplug of Grange on Green, has helped us locate a used 8' x16' solar greenhouse that we are planning to install on an old plywood living platform we had laying around. We plan to adapt this unit to use the recirculating solar hot water technique to extend the growing season this Fall.

For this season, Scotty has already begun raising seedlings from the seed Martha donated in egg-crates at his house. Colleen (who spent the Winter in Antarctica and is definitely ready to warm up) and Sarah are both enthusiastic to help Scotty get started and I've used the Kybota tractor to begin breaking ground for the expanded garden. We expect that soon our outdoor education students will benefit from seeing a working garden on campus and our rafters will enjoy its bounty as well. We will keep you posted as the project progresses. Feel free to visit the garden when you visit the River Center this season. It’s going to be fun to watch the garden grow!

See you in the River Center Permaculture Garden,

Scott, Scotty, Sarah, Martha, Dr. Dave, Danielle, Allen, Greg and the MaLode Green Team