Portable Energy Generation systems (PEGs)
Five Complete PEGs packaged up and ready to go!
Mezzacello Urban Farm prides itself on it’s commitment to sustainability and applied STEM applications. The Portable Energy Generation systems (PEGs) are the latest emerging trend in this field of exploration. This series of systems are designed much like the Mobile Classroom Lab and the Mobile Animals Coops.
Let’s Explore Renewables Safely
Mezzacello Urban Farm regularly offers workshops and summer camps detailing both renewable energy, power generation systems and renewable sustainability principles. We have been developing these systems for the last three years. In that time, we have had four interns and nine camps focused on developing safe systems and products for leveraging solar, wind, and battery technology in safe, efficient, and mobile configurations.
We believe energy production and hands on applied STEM programming is important and highly valued by our kids, families, and cxommunities. We believe we can do this safely and in ways that will inspire kids to ask better questions and more rigorously understand the deficits, barriers, and promise of energy production, capture, use, and safe exploration.
If you think that you might be interested in learning more about these systems, or leasing and or learning how to build your own systems, send us a request for more information here. You can also sign up for a previously scheduled workshop. If you’d like to schedule a weekday evening workshop, use this link to arrange that.
We have designed five solar and DC or AC solar power and battery generation systems. All of these systems have exacting power and generation factors included and all of them were co-engineered with summer camp and workshop students. They range from:
Simple DC solar panel tie-in and phone charging station
A more robust 30Ah and 60Ah DC charging station in cases with an optional AC inverter
A mobile AC inverter with a 30W panel
A mobile AC inverter with a 100W flexible panel
A 100, 200, or 300W solar panel system tied to a waterproof rolling case with an onboard 3000Ah AC generator and backup 30Ah batteries on a mobile platform and weighted stands
All systems use lightweight and energy-dense LiFePO4 battery technology
The Proof Is In The Panel
These systems all started out as problems to solve that the kids were experiencing at the urban farm in downtown Columbus, OH. Problems like, how do we keep rabbits cool on hot days? How do you open and close coop doors to protect poultry fropm predators or feed them automatically? How do you make sure the pond pumps always have energy for pumps amd aerators?
Then we transition to more energy-intensive problems like how do we pull rainwater from rain barrels into a water tower to create a source of pressurized water? How do we insure that there is power in the dead of winter for heaters and animals and waterers? How do we produce energy on site and not waste it when it’s leaking out through extension cords?
These problems are all relevant to kids. They KNOW our energy grid is wildly inefficient. They have documented high power energy lines in IR - they SEE the heat losses and the toll Ohm’s Law takes on power rith the radius of the distance and it’s effective voltage and current. They have done the calculations, and designed and built the systems as a proof of concept. Now I have built them all out as modules.
The technology of the solar panels we have been using has advanced rapidly over the past three years. the 100W panels from 2021 are no where near as efficient as the 100W panels of today, or the 200W panels or the amazing versatility of the foldable and flexible or double-sided panels. The kids have been working on them all!
What Should We Do Next?
VAWT Vertical Axis Wind Turbines) and solar arrays on sheds to power our urban farm in downtown Columbus, OH
The kids are really, really curious about the VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbines) systems but that is not as easy to integrate into mobile units. At Mezzacello, we use solar and VAWT systems to capture both wind and traffic energy from the main streat in downtown Columbus, OH. East Broad Street has busses, rush hour traffic and delivery vans and heavy equipment trucks that produce a lot of unexpeected wind on demand. We turn that into energy with ease! If you’d like to learn more, sign up for our newsletter!
