INSPIRATION

Burning Man Project is an ephemeral city for 80,000 people that serves as a radical experiment in urban design, inspiring civic leaders, technologists, designers and more globally.

Curious about electrification as a viable approach for combating climate change, we wanted to see if we could ditch fossil fuel generators and produce a large theme camp powered by the sun — all without sacrificing “default world” amenities (i.e. air conditioning, fridge, freezer, e-bikes, etc.). 

Burning Man sparked a catalyst: can we act sustainably and still live large? The answer is yes, and SOLARPUNKS was born.

SCOPE

In a desert environment with daily temperatures exceeding 105 F and winds up to 80 mph, we prototyped a community microgrid comprised of highly modular + off-grid distributed energy resources, including a 48kW max-rated solar array, 57kW max of inverter continuous power available, and 233kWh of battery storage capacity.

OUTCOME

Reflecting on an undeniably challenging but ultimately rewarding camp build, we: 

⚡️ Created the largest microgrid @ Burning Man!

⚡️ Supplied the energy equivalent of five avg. households for eight continuous days for 48 people

⚡️ Powered two art installations (Gaia and Petaled Portal) 

⚡️ Proved the viability (and even superior reliability) of powering festivities fully on renewable energy (our power never went down while other camps running on fossil-fuel based generators experienced outages)

LEARNINGS

We learned the necessity of a closed-loop design approach for regenerative off-grid energy systems, including load demand planning and using a full-system node balancing approach. 

We collected solar regeneration + energy consumption data summarized in our SOLARPUNKS 2022 Energy Study, with the hopes of providing insightful experimental data down to the single node level that can help anyone design their own system using consumer grade gear, whether for an individual Burner to a full camp. 

Ultimately, we hope this project will:

🍃 Dispel the notion that it is more reliable to use fossil fuel generators

🍃 Inspire others to power their own festivities with the sun both on- and off-Playa

🍃 Ignite curiosity about community-based energy solutions 

SHARED RESOURCES

Please find our SOLARPUNKS 2022 Energy Study here, which documents our energy system creation and performance results, including: 

☀️ Design, architecture and physical characteristics of the camp

☀️ Summary and highlight of key test results related to energy consumption and to solar regeneration dynamics

☀️ Physical design backup, including solar array design and electrical equipment loads by function area

☀️ Detailed data logs for energy consumption data

☀️ PV-to-Battery recharge data logs & charts