Welcome to the Free Appropriate Sustainable Technology (FAST) research group run by Professor Joshua Pearce, the Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at the Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership & Innovation. He holds appointments at Ivey Business School, the top ranked business school in Canada and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Western University in Canada, a top 1% global university. Western is ranked #3 in the world for sustainability and Ivey is as well among business schools. FAST helps Western achieve its sustainability goals as we explore the way solar photovoltaic technology can sustainably power our society and how open-source hardware like open source appropriate technologies (or OSAT) and RepRap 3-D printing can drive distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) (and maybe even social change).
Times Higher Education released its 2022 Impact Rankings, placing Western first in Canada and third in the world among universities working toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). FAST is proud to contribute to Western's commitment to addressing SDGs as part of Strategic Plan and our investment strategy of net zero investment goal.
Current Research Projects[edit | edit source]
Solar Photovoltaic Projects[edit | edit source]
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology provides the lowest cost electricity available in most markets including North America and was established as a sustainable energy source by Dr. Pearce decades ago. As installed costs continue to decline, antiquated polluting fossil-fuel-based grid electricity prices continue to escalate, PV growth will continue to expand to dominate the energy industry of the future because it simply has a lower levelized cost.[1] Today, it is even profitable to electrify your heating with solar powered heat pumps in both Canada and the US.[2] To accelerate a sustainable future with PV, we still need to decrease the costs by implementing optimal designs that use PV the most effectively. FAST is accounting for meteorological factors using FOSH sensing and datalogging to suggest best practices for reducing losses and increasing yields for PV systems. While at the same time pushing the limits of new PV systems designs including agrivoltaics (combining PV with agriculture with novel low-cost open source racking, new types of cells, and integration into greenhouses all of which have shown the potential to increase farm revenue and in many cases increase yields), floatovoltaics (using floating PV to reduce water evaporation while increasing yield with water cooling, open source building integrated PV (BIPV), coupling PV with heat pumps to use renewable energy to electrify heating, and PV-powered electric vehicle charging to electrify transportation. The Western Innovation for Renewable Energy (WIRED) system is currently under construction to test out new open source methods to reduce PV systems costs and enable novel forms of agrivoltaics.
Open Source Distributed Recycling and Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) Projects[edit | edit source]
Free and open source hardware (FOSH) consists of physical objects designed and offered in the same manner as free and open-source software (FOSS). FAST develops open-source scientific hardware for open source labs using Arduino microcontrollers and RepRaps in addition to our work in open source appropriate technology (OSAT), which are easily and economically made from readily available resources by local communities to meet their needs. We are on the front lines of a 3D Printing Revolution. FAST is developing solar powered self-replicating open-source 3-D printers - capable of making primary components of solar photovoltaic systems from recycled waste. This is part of a process called distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM), where anyone can use waste and free designs to make valuable products for themselves. We have shown it is environmentally and economically superior to traditional centralized and proprietary systems. as part of DRAM. Here is the plan. How would global society change if everyone had access to abundant low-cost renewable energy via solar electricity, open source 3D designs and an affordable open source 3-D printer like the RepRap? To make this possible, Pearce's group has developed many low-cost high performance 3-D printers like the first <$2000 open-source metal 3-D printer and the first automated recycleBot, a waste plastic extruder that can take household polymer waste and turn it into valuable 3-D printer feedstock. Now FAST is developing new high-performance manufacturing machines capable on one end of high resolution and on the other end of large prints with waste feedstocks using hang printers. In addition, FAST is using open source computer vision and artificial intelligence to make smart printers that can fix printing errors in real time.
Resilience and Alternative Food Projects[edit | edit source]
Mass human starvation is currently likely if global agricultural production is dramatically reduced for several years following a global catastrophe: e.g. super volcanic eruption, asteroid or comet impact, nuclear winter, abrupt climate change, super weed, super crop pathogen, super bacterium, or super crop pest. Even worse, such a catastrophe may cause the collapse of civilization, and recovery is not guaranteed. Therefore, this could affect many future generations. The primary historic solution developed over the last several decades is increased food storage. Storing up enough food to feed everyone, however, would take a significant amount of time and would increase the price of food, killing additional people due to inadequate global access to affordable food now. Humanity is far from doomed, however, in these situations - there are solutions. In the book Feeding Everyone No Matter What, Dr. Pearce and collaborator Dr. Denkenberger present a scientific approach to the practicalities of planning for long-term interruption to food production. This research in FAST continues investing distributed food production and finding practical low-cost ways using open source tools to derive edible food from leaves (leaf concentrate), seaweeds, wood, and perhaps most radically -- from waste plastic.
Completed Projects[edit | edit source]
Videos[edit | edit source]
The Wild West of Distributed Recycling[edit | edit source]
Why do we make such a big deal about open source hardware?[edit | edit source]
Pages in Category:FAST[edit | edit source]
- 3D Printed SiOC(N) Ceramic Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Regeneration: Improved Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow‐Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells
- 3D Printed vat for SLA printer
- 3D printed Cosine corrector
- 3D printed solar photovoltaic racking
- 3D printing of ball mill FAST Literature review
- A Review of the Effects of Haze on Solar Photovoltaic Performance
- AC off-grid photovoltaic powered open-source ball mill
- Achieving 100% Renewable and Self-Sufficient Electricity in Impoverished, Rural, Northern Climates: Case Studies from Upper Michigan, USA
- Additional Services Provided by Solar PV Systems: A review
- Application of artificial neural networks in 3D printing anomaly detection (Lit Review)
- OS Bioreactor Data Acquisition (DAQ) System
- Business Models for Open Source Hardware Repositories
- Canadian PV Racking System Standards Literature Review
- Connecting Devices to WPA2-Enterprise Network (Eduroam):FAST
- Creality CR-10 sp 3D printer operation :FAST
- Creation of Modular Recyclable Solar Panels - Literature Review
- Cross-Cut Shredder
- Design of Post-Consumer Modification of Standard Solar Modules to Form Large-Area Building-Integrated Photovoltaic Roof Slates
- Details of Broker for Shipping - The University of Western Ontario (Western University)
- Differential scanning calorimetry procedure: FAST
- Differential scanning calorimetry procedure: FAST
- Процедура дифференциальной сканирующей калориметрии: FAST
- Digital research alliance GPU: FAST
- Distributed Manufacturing of an Open-Source Tourniquet Testing System
- Distributed manufacturing of after market flexible floating photovoltaic modules
- Distributed manufacturing with 3-D printing: a case study of recreational vehicle solar photovoltaic mounting systems
- Dual use of land for PV farms and agriculture literature review
- 光伏電站土地兩用與農業文獻綜述
- Dye-sensitized solar cells as promising candidates for underwater photovoltaic applications
- เซลล์แสงอาทิตย์ชนิดสีย้อมไวแสงเป็นผู้สมัครที่มีแนวโน้มสำหรับการใช้งานเซลล์แสงอาทิตย์ใต้น้ำ
- Economic Efficiency of an Open-Source National Medical Lab Software in Canada
- Environmental remediation of real textile dyeing wastewater under visible light and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria using ZnO\CuO nano-needles
- Evaluation of lab performance of stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate waste composites without asphalt as road surface materials
- FAST News
- FAST Researcher Expectations
- FAST application process
- FAST digital presence
- FAST first day
- FAST method for shipping outside of Canada:FAST
- FAST methods template
- FAST open access policy
- FAST paper writing
- 快速地
- Faculty vehicle booking with Western: FAST
- Finding Ideal Parameters for Recycled Material Fused Particle Fabrication-Based 3D Printing Using an Open Source Software Implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization
- Foam-based floatovoltaics: A potential solution to disappearing terminal natural lakes
- Food 3D printer - Pastruder
- Free and Open-Source Automated Open Access Preprint Harvesting
- Fully dense SiOC(N) cellular structures by integrating FFF 3-D printing with polymer derived ceramics
- Geographical Dependence of Open Hardware Optimization: Case Study of Solar Photovoltaic Racking
- Global distribution of forest classes and leaf biomass for use as alternative foods to minimize malnutrition
- Greenhouse Economics
- Greenhouse thermal modelː FAST
- Ground mount fixed tilt PV racking literature review
- Ground mount fixed tilt PV racking literature review/Aerodynamics of Ground-Mounted Solar Panels: Test Model Scale Effects
- Ground mount fixed tilt PV racking literature review/Vibrations & Seismic Requirements
- Handheld Digital Microscope: FAST
- Heat pumps integrated with greenhouses literature review
- How Easy is it to Feed Everyone? Economic Alternatives to Eliminate Human Nutrition Deficits
- 养活每个人谈何容易?消除人类营养不足的经济替代方案
- How To Book Your Travel for Internship-Project at The University of Western Ontario (Western University)
- How to make a figure to publish
- Image Masking using GIMP
- Impacts of Location on Designs and Economics of DIY Low-Cost Fixed-Tilt Open Source Wood Solar Photovoltaic Racking
- Introducing DC Nano grid as a modular device with efficient Energy Management System
- Investing to kill: return on investment of tobacco companies compared to high-mortality and neutral industries
- Killing two birds with one stone: chemical and biological upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastics into food
- Leveraging Intellectual Property to Prevent Nuclear War
- Lignin-based energy storage devices literature review
- Lit Review: Open Source Mobility Aids
- Literature Review for Comparative LCA Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Roof-top and Ground-mounted Systems
- Literature Review on Design and Control of Dual Active Bridge Converter Cascaded with Inverter to Interface Between Nano grid and AC network.
- Literature Review: DC Nano grid
- Literature Review: EMR Adoption in Canada
- Literature Review: Hardware implementation of open source DC Nano grid
- Literature Review: Identifying Existing and New 3D-Printing Material
- Literature Review: Open Source Auto-Injector
- Literature Review: Open Source Hypochlorous Acid Generator
- Literature Review: Open Source Hypochlorous Acid Generator
- Literature Review: Open Source Hypochlorous Acid Generator
- Literature Review: Open Source Water Filter
- Literature Review: Open Source Water Testing Device
- Literature Review: Open source design of MPPT solar charge controller 30A, 24V
- 문헌 검토: MPPT 태양광 충전 컨트롤러 30A, 24V의 오픈 소스 설계
- Literature Review: Plastic Composites as a Structural Material
- Literature Review: Self-Ballasted OS Roof PV Rack from Waste Plastic
- Literature review: Open Source Waste Plastic Sheet Press
- Literature review: Open source solar power supply unit for plasma generator
- Long term cost-effectiveness of resilient foods for global catastrophes compared to artificial general intelligence safety
- Long-term cost-effectiveness of interventions for loss of electricity\industry compared to artificial general intelligence safety
- Low-cost pole and wire photovoltaic racking
- Mechanical and economic analysis of conventional aluminum photovoltaic module frames, frames with side holes, and open-source downward-fastened frames for non-traditional racking
- Methane Single Cell Protein: securing protein supply during global food catastrophes
- Method For Testing Bending Of Pipe Materials
- Monofacial vs bifacial solar photovoltaic systems in snowy environments
- Monofaciální vs. bifaciální solární fotovoltaické systémy v zasněženém prostředí
- Motakabbir
- Multi-parameter Water Quality Monitor: FAST
- Neonatal Phototherapy Literature Review
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ K. Branker, M.J.M. Pathak, J.M. Pearce, A Review of Solar Photovoltaic Levelized Cost of Electricity, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15, pp.4470-4482 (2011). DOI and Open access
- ↑ Joshua M. Pearce and Nelson Sommerfeldt. 2021. "Economics of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Heat Pumps: The Case of Northern Climates of the U.S. and Canada" Energies 14, no. 4: 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040834