One of my typical shopping centre displays, which I used around Western Australia in the early 90's. This one is at the Esperance Boulevard.
2 x Solarex MSX-60 Poly crystal.
Ampair 100 turbine.
A range of the first CFL lamps
They were $30 each in 1990.
Joe is of the Bahi faith, and has a deep sense of environmental
responsibility. It induced her to comission the second solar / wind hybrid power system installed in the city of Fremantle. Over the next three years, it slowly grew and grew and grew...
Solar pioneers Mr & Mrs John Ware.
Mandilla station, Kambalda, W.A.
Survivor 5000 wind turbine on 18 metre mast.
B.P 70 Watt Mono crystal panels on Sundog tracking frame.
Below
Survivor 5000 turbine in a stiff breeze. This is a downwind turbine, with the blades downwind from the mast.... Not a bad machine, but the gearbox let it down... it was a modified V.W transmission.
Enthusiastic client holding one of my early "Solar Technology Designers Catalogues ."
The Sudog freon driven, passive tracker next to him is loaded with two very early Solarex Mono crystal panels and six Solarex MSX-60 Poly crystals.
Solar pioneer Melony Hyde's Starship "Xtasea", Esperance, Western Australia. Xtasea sits atop high cliffs, facing the most astounding seascape.
The view here dipicts the land facing Northen side. We all learnt much from this little system. It was the recipient of an early demonstration grant. It was positioned on the tourist drive and generated immense public interest.
Ampair Mk1 Micro wind plant. 900 mm propellor diameter.
2 x BP 60 watt Mono crystal panels.
4 x Siemen's 75 watt Powermax Mono crystal.
10 Kilowatt hour, 12 volt battery.
Your's Truly, standing before solar pioneer, Annie Serna-Pastor's solar tracking frame. Gidgegannup, Western Australia.
Annie's two original B.P "Old technology" mono-crystal panel's are completely surrounded by ten of my Uni-Sun Advanced Amorphous, US-64 Super panels, which, over the coming decade, were to prove themselves as the most sustainable, technically advanced and durable solar power panels ever made.
Sample of the 1995 catalogue
1995. Michaels "Octagon" Hill View Tce, East Fremantle. This was the first solar / wind power system in the City of Fremantle. Michael had built an unusual octagonal home on the hill....But he was no dill. He wanted to expand but was confronted with outrageous costs for a mains power upgrade. So, he decided to install a dual power system.
We installed the little Ampair up into the "Fremantle Doctor". ( Sea breeze ) It spun good ! Mike loved gadget's so we put one of Bruno Wittwer's tracker's on the flat roof, loaded with six of the best mono-crystal panels available, SHOWA M55's.
The regulator was one of my hand build Solar Wonderland Controllers, which also switched off two circuits of halogen lamps in sequence if power was low.... ( It virtually never was ) 20 Kilowatt Hour Century Yuasa 24 volt battery. Selectronic SE-30 True sine wave inverter ( Just released )
Prototype Solar wonderland controller under kitchen bench. Ideal position for a trainee female space pilot. Mel always understood the condition of the battery and her ultimate energy reserves. For many years this was a stand alone system without mains or backup generator.
Early Selectronic Silver series, 600 watt, modified square wave inverter. All lighting was 12 Volts D.C. The Ampair turbine was in its element here, and combined with the six panels yielded an average of 2500 watt-hours daily through most of the year.
The "Pink House" control system.
Solar Pioneer Warwick Rowells "Rosneath Farm" Permaculture Village.
Dunsborough, Western Australia.The original system was installed with a restrictive budget. There were no rebates at the time.
8 x UNI-SOLAR US-64 Advanced Amorphous panels, mounted on a Brunotraker.
These were the first such panels we ever used....Their performance convinced us that they were a milestone in the development of Photo-Voltaic technology.
Hoppecke 24 Volt Lead acid, 20 Kilowatt hour, open vented battery. German made. I installed quite a lot of them, but in the end they fared no better than equivalent Exide and Century tubular plate units.
Selectronic SE-21 True sine wave inverter. 1600 watts continuous. We also installed the remote readout and keypad as you can see, beneath the Solar Wonderland Controller.
Solar Wonderland Mk007 Regulator. Now, Warwick has a masters degree, and has experience with a wide range of solar regulators. Ask him who build the best regulators...and why ?
Because of its superior human interface, that imparts comprehension of system operation !
1995. Apprentice "Dark Star", Joe Ambrose. Margaret River, W.A. Joe is a marine engineer, a good one. He liked things done in a meticulous manner.
This was the year before Uni-Solar released their US-64 super panel, so we were unfortunately forced to use ancient crystalline technology. These were the last batch that I have ever used. 6 x BP 75 watt Mono crystal, 2 x Solarex 80 Watt Poly crystal,
1 x BRUNOTRAKER....
The battery stored enough energy to run all night when needed. The panel is placed in an optimum, full sun position...Unlike free standing , solar charged lamps, which are often in poor sun spots. This system is worth around $700. We are happy to quote on specific needs you may have for quality solar garden lighting...and pond / waterfall pumping.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, thats where you'll find me !
Ampair 100 Mk 1 Aero turbine. Practically silent, and Rolls Royce quality. 20 Year life +. We guyed it here very nicely with high quality yachting hardware. You can see this brilliant little machine throught my history archive. It has a propellor diameter of 900mm and a max power output of 100 watts per hour. Do not confuse with cheap air machines with rediculous power ratings.
Two of the original archaic B.P Mono-Crystal 75 watt panels, and their successor, the mighty U.S 64 Amorphous super module...As many would know, size isn't everything...It's how you use it !
View towards the Swan River and North Fremantle. At the time I was operating from the North Freo Permaculture Centre
This is an advanced prototype of my "Grid Switching" system, which husbands the precious solar energy on site and value adds it, instead of playing watt amounts to pathetic political games, in order to assume a clean green sheen, and undeserved Kudos.
The two contactors on the top LHS with red led's switch power circuits automatically between mains and solar power depending on the solar charge state of the energy storage battery....The refrigerator circuit drops back to mains first, then, if bad weather persists, the priority circuit, T.V, computer and lighting would revert to mains the following day.
Once the battery has recovered, they both switch back to solar power. In practice, the priority circuit was practically always on pure, stable
solar / battery / inverter power, which is the great advantage of this system.
Josephines 20 Kilowatt-Hour "Hoppecke" battery bank. We installed it under the floor
with easy external access. We no longer use open vented batteries in domestic situations. They always were a compromise..dirty, smelly, dangerous.
Some companies still recommend and use them because they dont know any better.
( Or value their customers lives )
Josephines control system consisted of my Solar
Wonderland controller, and a Selectronic remote keypad / SA-22 inverter combination. She loved the Solar Wonderland..everyone does.
The expanded scale voltmeter is comprised of 20 cunningly colour coded, super bright leds, which burn the systems operating voltage range deeply into the psyche...Only one or two leds are on at any one time as the voltmeter slowly traverses its range. Because it operates in an "Analogue"...not digital manner, the human mind accepts it more readily.