Would you like to run your festival stall from completely renewable energy? We have a trailer that can do just that. It can provide you with up to 2.5 kilowatts of power and recharges its batteries with the power of the sun. We call it Solar Gennie.
Solar Gennie is available for hire to community events which need off grid power and/or want the lowest possible carbon footprint. It’s designed to support a 1 or 2 day event. Contact info@transitionbelper.org for more information.
Would you like to use the trailer for your event?
Solar Gennie consists of:
- a twin axle trailer with a flat bed 2.3m X 1.3m
- mounted on the trailer, a wedge shaped welded aluminium spaceframe
- mounted on the spaceframe, 8 X 125 watt solar panels (nominally 1 kw max power). Two of the panels are fixed and the other 6 are foldable or removable for transport
- under the fixed panels, an accessible space for the electrical control components and the battery pack
- a large area on the trailer flatbed and below the panels for transporting and storing other equipment
Solar Gennie arriving at 2022 Belper Goes Green where it powered one of the sound stages.
The trailer’s story
In 2020/21, our Energy Group won ‘Bounce Forward’ funding, from the Heritage Lottery fund via the Transition Network, to design and build a trailer-mounted solar power generator for use in supporting community outdoor events such as Belper Goes Green.
This was a major ‘lockdown project’ for Tony Cooper and Richard Bett, who made maximum use of pre-existing components which were donated by Veggies Catering Campaign following the dismantling of their ‘Genex’ solar power truck in 2020.
We called it ‘Solar Gennie‘.
How much of it is recycled?
The solar panels, cabling, space frame structure and battery pack are all second user (the panels are in fact at least third user and are 18 years old!) All except the batteries were taken from a solar truck which had reached the end of its life. We are indebted to the off-grid enthusiasts who made this possible.
Specification
If you’re interested in the electrical configuration, here are the details (and more are available):
- 24V DC config. Panels are in serial pairs (2s x 4p).
- Solar Charge Controller (MPPT) configured for lithium batteries
- 4 X lithium battery modules from a 40KwH Nissan Leaf (1/6th of the total Leaf battery bank) providing approx 3 KwH storage
- 24V -> 220V pure sine inverter, 2.5 Kw AC continuous output
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