They explain that they have two batteries (a Li-Ion and a Lead-Acid) but are going to stop using the Li-Ion and buy a smaller third battery so the web server can “shut down” rather than just using both batteries and letting the web server run 4 days without sun.
Neat, but this seems like it’s engineered to shut down, not engineered to stay up. I wonder if it’s on purpose.
Less than 100% reliability is essential for the sustainability of an off-the-grid solar system, because above a certain threshold the fossil fuel energy used for producing and replacing the batteries is higher than the fossil fuel energy saved by the solar panels.
Looks like it's a messaging thing, mostly to show that such a website can be done. They discuss energy usage wrt environmental impact a lot on that page.
EDIT: that is to say, it's definitely engineered to shut down, rather than to stay up
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They explain that they have two batteries (a Li-Ion and a Lead-Acid) but are going to stop using the Li-Ion and buy a smaller third battery so the web server can “shut down” rather than just using both batteries and letting the web server run 4 days without sun.
Neat, but this seems like it’s engineered to shut down, not engineered to stay up. I wonder if it’s on purpose.
From https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html#offline:
Looks like it's a messaging thing, mostly to show that such a website can be done. They discuss energy usage wrt environmental impact a lot on that page.
EDIT: that is to say, it's definitely engineered to shut down, rather than to stay up