This week saw the first successful use of the brand-new coffee roaster machine, the Helios V. That is, the coffee-roasting part of it! I constructed it from sheet metal and ordered parts in a rented bus garage down the street. We have it set up in the back of our coffee shop on 3rd & Main in Pueblo, and we're running it through its paces. There are plenty of things bumping when they shouldn't, beans popping through where they don't belong, and smoke billowing out into the crowded cafe- but over all a success! It roasts evenly, all-be-it with heat from natural gas.
It always seems like the conclusion of one project is, in fact, the start of a new one! In this case, it is now finally time to start on the new concentrator. One year from today, this same roaster will be producing excellent coffee, and will be powered entirely with energy from the sun! (Hopefully with issues of the bumps, beans, and billowing resolved!)
Our previous solar coffee roaster is, in the mean time, going to be converted into a solar plastics recycling machine.
It's my first open-source technology project, and the first time anybody's made a focused and funded effort to create a full-scale commercial solar power tower and then place it into the public domain. As several close business advisers have warned me, it is a risk to give away what might be sold. It is my belief, though, that the potential gains justify the risk, and that open-source technologies are the paving stones and foundations of a newer brighter version of the future!
For periodic updates on these projects and all the adventures along the way, please stay tuned to this blog.
Sincerely,
David Hartkop
Owner & Inventor, Solar Roast Coffee & The Open Sun Project
David:
ReplyDeleteWe need to talk about the weight of your project.
Tim
tgoy99@gmail.com