Many thanks to those of you who participated in our first attempt at fund-raising through KickStarter. Though we did not reach our goal, it was wonderful to see the support and read comments from the many people who made pledges. Your interest is greatly appreciated!
The Open Sun Project took back burner to a more pressing issue in early June when we were told by management of the Pueblo Mall that we had to vacate our shop in order to make room for a hat store. It was within the contract rights for them to do so, but it was troubling to be given only 4 days remove our entire business. Now, a month later, we have a new coffee shop up and running in a drive-through location. We have been able to hire back many of the employees from the mall shop, and I have been working to publicize the new shop.
Those fires extinguished (or at least shoveled back into the fireplace where they belong), I can finally give this project the attention it deserves, and provide some updates as well.
Scope and Funding:
Thanks to PEDCO and the City of Pueblo, Solar Roast Coffee LLC has received an economic development grant to improve our coffee wholesale department and to create jobs. We have finally been able to make some use of these funds, and have figured out a way to complete our solar roaster project with the available support. The original intention of the Open Sun Project was to raise funds to complete a large solar concentrator project that was to be installed on the roof of a leased bus garage space. The project was going to take about 18 months from this June, and would involve some serious R&D in order to pull it off. Our ability to do this in a timely manner, and to do it practically, has been subject to much concern after all the uncertainty with having to move our shop etc. Now that it has stabilized, we have been able to approach it with a new, more level-headed approach.
The New Plan:
Rather than installing a large experimental concentrator on a bus garage, we have opted to install an array of standard photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of our downtown coffee shop. The roaster will then be powered via a large electrical heater, which I am in the process of installing. This approach, though a bit more expensive in the hardware outlay, has some serious advantages: First, the solar technology is mature and I can simply pay someone to install it. It is guaranteed to work, and is insured and maintenance-free. Secondly, since it is at our coffee shop location, we will be able to take advantage of cost savings in the electric bill for the cafe when not roasting coffee. (The previous design only produced heat energy, so there was no real use for the solar power if not roasting coffee. At least not at first.) Third, the time to completion for the whole project is now less than 4 months away. This is an excellent development, and will have us 'up and running' well ahead of our previous schedule, and bodes well for actually achieving our goals laid out with the economic development board! We have already hired our first full-time wholesale manager, and she is kicking butt!
Open Source Technology:
As for the open-source technology we were developing under the original Open Sun Project, I have a complete working prototype for a weatherproof low-cost heliostat. It uses a pair of weatherized stepping gear motors, also developed here for the project. I am continuing to work with Ben Aiken, programmer, friend & cousin, to create a suite of software modules for implementing a tracked array. We plan to release the open-source technology package some time this fall. The package will contain my research and development notes and a full set of plans for creating these heliostats, and will also contain the software notes, pseudo-code, and working JAVA based implementations of the software. When all is said and done, we'll have something really great to show for the work we started. Please stay tuned to our site "OpenSunProject.com" for the full publication.
