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I made my blog solar-powered, then things escalated

louwrentius.com · 1,885 words · saved by 1 readers

In 2020 I wondered if I could run my blog on solar power, being inspired by Low-tech Magazine, doing the same thing (but better)1. The answer was 'yes', but only through spring and summer. I live in an apartment complex in The Netherlands and my balcony is facing east. This means it only receives direct sunlight from 16:00 onward during spring and summer. Most of the time, the panels only get indirect sunlight and therefore generate just a tiny fraction of their rated performance. The key issue is not solar, but the east-facing balcony (it should ideally be facing south). original solar panel It's fair to say that my experiment isn't rational because of the sub-optimal solar conditions. Yet, I'm unreasonably obsessed by solar power and I wanted to make it work, even if it didn't make sense from an economic or environmental perspective2. When I wrote my blog about my solar-powered setup, I was already on my second iteration: I started out with just a 60 Watt panel and a cheap $20 solar

I made my blog solar-powered, then things escalated Home Solar About In 2020 I wondered if I could run my blog on solar power , being inspired by Low-tech Magazine , doing the same thing (but better) 1 . The answer was 'yes', but only through spring and summer. I live in an apartment complex in The Netherlands and my balcony is facing west. This means it only receives direct sunlight from 16:00 onward during spring and summer. Most of the time, the panels only get indirect sunlight and therefore generate just a tiny fraction of their rated performance. The key issue is not solar, but the west-

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