Hugely in favor of helping solarpunk concepts reach people across language barriers! And very interested to see solarpunk stuff from DACH. Having a community here might help ease them into the rest of the instance too

Best of luck!

That’s a really well designed stencil

This is really cool! I really appreciate the history and the way they changed things around them, along with changes in the way they’re perceived. I also think the distinction between the sort of black box device and the focal thing, directly used and serviced by people, is worth considering.

I’m optimistic that solarpunk as a genre might be able to help with the aesthetic appreciation of modern windmills at least. They show up frequently in solarpunk art (though almost more often in the form of altaeros temporary windmill blimps):

I even included one in a scene of a ship at sea:

Its cool to think that the aesthetics of an optimistic genre/movement could help sway the culture in a way that helps support windmills. I also really like the author’s suggestions for education possibilities, helping people engage with them, feel a sense of ownership or pride in them, if they are so hard to ignore.

So this is a question that’s been in the back of my mind for awhile while seeing celebrations of dams being removed, no worries if you don’t want to be the one to answer it.

I think I understand the extent of the damage caused by the implementation of dams, but I guess my impression had been that that damage was done, and there wasn’t much of a timeline on fixing it. Like, after eighty years or so, are there fish still trying to get past it?

At the same time, we’re struggling (failing?) globally to get away from fossil fuels quickly enough to avoid the worst of climate collapse. It seems like hydro is one of the more reliable green power sources, and is compatible with old grid infrastructure that counts on fairly consistent power so there’s less than has to be overhauled in order to just keep using hydro for awhile longer.

So at first glance, it seems like new solar and wind etc production would be better prioritized in replacing oil, coal, natural gas. Prioritizing replacing hydro feels like letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I haven’t seen that discussion anywhere, so I genuinely expect I’m wrong about that, but I’m wondering why.

Nice! I’ll check that out!

Thanks, that makes sense on both topics, they’re definitely going on the list!

That’s a good list, thank you! I have a couple questions you might be able to answer:

Could you elaborate on the relays? I don’t know anything about them yet (in their intended use or alternatives). Though I am reading up on them.

I know there’s a some benefit in running 12v appliances (intended for campers) with solar panel setups because you don’t have to convert from DC to AC then back to DC at the appliance. Would that work for just using a car’s AC unit to cool a room, or are they built too specific to a car or not efficient enough to justify the work?

Thank you!!

That reminds me - inside the rubber squeegee part is a long thin strip of good quality spring steel. Lockpicking folks like it for making tools, diy gun folks sometimes use them to make the extractor. I honestly don’t know what to use the rest of the wiper for.

This is a great list with a bunch of stuff I wouldn’t have thought of - the transmission reuse is a cool idea!

I think some LED headlights are goood for growing plants. I remember some local news panic piece from years ago about how criminals were stealing headlights for their grow ops. A quick search online confirmed they work fine (probably not worth stealing though) and this post I think suggested a couple other car parts alternative uses I’ll have to go back and get later: https://www.rollitup.org/t/is-it-possible-to-convert-a-headlamp-into-a-grow-light.496815/

Thanks again!

Oh, one more to consider: Reckoning Press is more climate fiction than explicitly solarpunk, but it was one of the things that got me to give solarpunk a chance.

Ecotopia is a fun one because it hits all the notes but predates the genre.

Murder in the Tool Library is a favorite of mine because the setting is awesome and aspirational while feeling real and human, and because the murder mystery plot is a change from the usual ecofiction.

The solarpunk TTRPG Fully Automated! is free (libre and gratis) and has several sections devoted to its setting and worldbuilding that helped me understand a bunch of solarpunk concepts by seeing them in practice and to start thinking much bigger with my own fiction. It also has some good advice on creating engaging plots in an aspirational solarpunk setting where a lot of the usual problems have been solved.

That’s interesting, even going with modern tech, it’s a neat answer to preserving darkness. Military-grade passive night vision with the analogue tubes are ridiculously expensive but you wouldn’t need them just for walking around - simple infrared spotlight goggles are way cheaper, and probably lighter, especially if you remove extra binocular features. They could also be assisted by infrared streetlights if those wouldn’t mess up other animals. Downsides: I don’t think walking while wearing them would be fun, your depth perception and field of view takes a hit with most designs, and slow update of the screen can be disorienting. They’re also more complicated to make than flashlights.

That’s an interesting idea - instead of carrying a flashlight you might carry an RFID transponder. They’d need to not be linked to any personal records (such as purchase) to protect anonymity and prevent tracking. And a personal flashlight might still be useful.

I’m not sure I love the idea of lights flicking on, identifying where I am to someone waiting in the dark. Maybe it would turn on lights for a block length on the street or something? I’m also wondering if the reduced on-off cycling would wear out lights faster and, if so, how replacing them more often stacks up to more energy spent running them all the time.

Still it’s an interesting compromise position on the light pollution situation.

Thanks! I’ll check it out!

I’m definitely a beginner too, especially with using actual cloth - I think I just got lucky with which fabric I happened to have on hand.

This simple beginning definitely got us thinking about more elaborate stuff to try in the future. Part of why I did a basic cloth hardcover was that the author never made any cover art for it, and partly that I just thought it would be a good fit for the feel of the story. But for some of our own I think we can do some really cool versions of their cover art in this format. Part of that would be inverting the colors and dialing in the contrast for clarity.

I’ve seen some really cool looking illustrations etched on online demonstrating the potential:

That’s right! I’d seen images like these online:

So I knew it could be done and that for some reason the fabric turned lighter where it was zapped, but I didn’t know why, or if that would happen when I tried it. I thought it might darken like paper and wood do when etched, or that it might burn all the way through, or just not look very good. My backup plan was to use the etching as a guide and to paint the letters on with gold paint (I’ve got a pretty steady hand with a paintbrush from painting warhammer in my youth so it felt like okay odds of success) but it turned out much like the other images I saw!

I’m attaching a close up photo to hopefully give you a better idea of how it looks:

I think you can see that the cloth is a little diminished, and the etched section is maybe a thousandth of an inch (or two) lower (though I don’t think the white color is coming from the glue on the back or anything because it’s so consistent). I’m not sure why it reacted like this.

Looking at this test I don’t think I can feel a difference in depth with fingertips until I get to 30%.

To be honest, until reading this comment I didn’t even know that was a thing! This is very cool and something I’m going to have to experiment with in the future!

Every time before this book I used a heavy duty canvas suitable for printing on with a plotter printer. It was very sturdy and seemed pretty impermeable, so it was very easy and low-risk to glue to the bookboard. Dust didn’t really seem to stick to it either.

With this one, I just just glued the fabric to the bookboard with acid-free PVA but I was much more careful with the amount of glue I used for fear it’d soak through. I think I went a little light on my first copy, but I’m working on another and took a few more risks and they worked out - it seems to be better bonded without marring the outside. I have noticed that dust really sticks to it, I don’t know how well this one would hold up to thumping around in a backpack for a few weeks or anything like that. So there’s definitely room to improve on the materials.

That is very cool!!

I like the way they’re partway between scenes and diagrams - it makes for very clear explanations.

These are all awesome! You’ve given me a bunch to think about