Technology for sustainable rural communities

This is a new MTU project that looks at technologies that can be used to improve rural livelihood strategies and sustainability in rural communities in the U.S. (specifically the UP of Michigan). This project is tied closely to social science research focusing on establishing community relationships, community driven development, and collaboration for community sustainability and reduction in poverty.

Sub-Project Ideas

Stand-alone solar photovoltaic powered high-speed wireless Internet access
- PV-powered Mesh network repeaters
Renewable energy micro-grid
- Municipal Utilities - grid, water, sewage, communications
- Distributed generation, PV+CHP, wind and renewable energy region work
Regional industrial symbiosis - see: William Doyle and Joshua M. Pearce, “Utilization of Virtual Globes for Open Source Industrial Symbiosis”, Open Environmental Sciences'', 3, pp. 88-96, 2009.
- Uses for non-recycled recyclables in rural communities and small-scale local value-added production
  - Waste glass??
  - newspaper + fire retardant = insulation
  - waste plastic -> waste plastic extruder -> RepRap
Local currency - community banking - P2P lending do a community budgeting study to determine expenses and then hammer on all recurring drains.
Payments for service via pay it forward to Appropedia or other knowledge bank.
Reduction in operation costs - using life cycle economics - see Joshua M. Pearce, Tom Carpenter and David Denkenberger, “Found in Translation: A New Language for Engineers Discussing Energy Efficiency Retrofits”, Journal of Policy Engagement, 1(2), pp. 9-13, 2009.
- Lighting ala: Joshua Pearce and Chris Russill, "Interdisciplinary Environmental Education: Communicating and Applying Energy Efficiency for Sustainability", open access Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 4(1), 65-72, 2005. Q-Share pre-print
- Insulation
- etc.