Substitute for national grid or heavyweight solar with:
- 1 80 watt panel per 40 households,
- connected to a 15 minute AA battery charger (i.e. the new gen rayovacs)
These items connected into a "power pillar" - a walk-up charging station where people come with their empty NIMH batteries, drop them into the charger, wait 15 minutes, then take them home. Assuming a 10 hour charging day, that services 40 sets of batteries.
Appliances for this system include:
- lighting: cold cathode fluorescent lights (see: http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/dbright.htm ), LED headlamps, etc.
- communication: cell phone chargers, FRS-type radios, other battery powered radios etc.
- entertainment: pretty much any general purpose device can be found in a AA configuration, like televisions (http://www.amazon.com/Casio-TV-980-2-3-Portable-Color/dp/B0000CGCCM)
- wood gasification stove (see below)
What won't work:
Heavy-draw mains appliances (toasters, video projectors)
Financial model:
- $400 for the panel, $100 for the charger and pillar. ($12.50 per adult)
- $10 for 4 fast charge AA batteries for each adult.
- $10 or less for each lighting unit. ($32.50 total)
$50 per household should comfortably buy everything required for basic electrical services. A bare bones system (lighting and stoves only) would be less than $20 per household because the panel could be split between 80 - 120 households.