Commentary:

In this part we finish up the conversation about using additional sources of power in addition to solar, such as wind or hydro power. Whilst Mike does invest some time improving wind turbine models, he also only uses them in climates with very little sun. These days solar panels are getting so efficient, even in low light, and so cheap, that they end up being the best option to rely on. The main reason why you should avoid using wind, or hydro power in combination is that you increase the complexity of the systems.. You now have to manage two power inputs! Maintenance is also a big issue! Solar is just superior because there are no moving parts, nothing much to do except clean them once in a while.. They will last 30-40 years and provide endless power! This same logic applies to using systems that attempt to improve solar gain with solar panels, such as solar panel tracking systems. The bottom line is basically, take whatever money you would have invested in these new systems and just buy more panels. Unless you live in the north pole regions where it is pitch black for half the year, solar really is the best choice.

Then we finally get into what I think is the most important part of Biotecture and why we need to see way more of them being built around the world. Yes, there are massive environmental benefits when using Biotecture. I don’t think there is any other kind of building in existence that can deliver a carbon negative footprint, because no other build has been designed down to the extent that you can survive if needed at -20 Celsius without any additional heating. Body heat and even laptop heat alone can provide enough warmth to keep a small space warm! But more important than that is that we need to evolve, and we need to evolve faster. We need to start living like this is the only planet we have. We need security and we need decentralisation in all its forms. We need decentralised power because air pollution is killing us, millions of us each year. We need to harvest the rain for our water source.. which is otherwise gushing into sewer systems, lost through mass centralised inefficiency, treated using massive treatment plants, toxified with cleaning agents, and then sold back to us at high cost.. I think its fair to say that just catching and using it right off your roof is a heck of a lot smarter! I'll leave you with my favourite quote from this part:

"Centralisation of utilities is killing us... decentralisation gives us a door to the future. All of a sudden you're in charge of your power, nobody can shut your power off. You're in charge of your water, you're in charge of your sewage you're in charge of your life. You own your life. "

Earthship Seminar Transcription Part 10

On these older buildings you see we got a whole you know we got 30-50 watt panels... and they're on trackers ... You have to have a maintenance man just to deal with that, and so we're gonna switch all of them... we got so many buildings that we can't keep up really. And that's another thing, you don't want to have to keep up... you want everything to be so that you don't have to do maintenance. In the early versions of all of this, there was a lot of things you had to do, it's like running a sail-boat... but now the the versions that we have out now, they're very minimal in terms of operation and maintenance.

A thin film (flexible) solar panel

SOURCE & MORE INFO ON THIN FILM SOLAR

But if you if you if you're in a cloudy area my recommendation now would be thin film solar panels, which still would go right on that same place. You can actually surface the whole area right now, if you notice like on the global model there's like six panels up there, or four in some cases. Well the it takes more area with the thin film solar, so you just surface this whole thing... the whole length of the building would be a solar collector of thin film (solar PV), and then that's gonna get you some power... even in cloudy days, and then in the cloudy area you would throw in a vertical axis windmill. Within a couple of three months we will have this real beautiful one we call a Dynosphere... that's it's it's a sphere with a vertical axis... and the reason it's a sphere is cause these cylinder ones, it's all about small amount of wind starting the blade... and everybody knows the principle of leverage. Well on a cylinder there's just a little bit of leverage... look how much or leverage there is on a sphere with the same height. There's a lot more leverage in the blade and plus it's beautiful. So we're making this whole sculptural thing that's gonna sit out here on this big post and spin and make power. And so we'll be taking those to Norway in different places where it's cloudy.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

SOURCE

So windmills are a maintenance issue... I mean if you ever see like the wind farms... in addition to being dangerous for flocks of birds and whatever... they're always half of them... have you ever seen a wind farm with every windmill turning? There are always half of them down... it's maintenance maintenance maintenance. And and a bit of danger, and an environmental hazard and so on. I don't particularly like wind farms. The one wind farm I did like was in the bay out in front of Copenhagen... they've got a bunch of them out in the sea ...that's pretty cool, that's not bad. But but still see, the whole thing with wind farms other than maintenance is it's clustered power... centralised power... that you're having to move through an infrastructure to get to the homes.

Maintenance!

SOURCE

We're used to evolving very slowly we need to evolve faster.

So centralisation is really the wrong direction in my opinion. A good example of centralisation being faulty is say a municipality... it has to do with the condition of the planet now and what we have to do to cope with the planet changing very fast. Population growing, resources dwindling, climate change, for whatever reason... whether it's man-caused or not. The world around us is changing, we need to evolve. We're used to evolving very slowly we need to evolve faster.

And then they've got 50 million dollars in this power plant, and they are stuck with that now.
They've got 50 million dollars in it, they've got to use it for 50 years

Huge subsidies are given for the Hinkley Point nuclear power station.

Does this look smart?

SOURCE

OR
Does this look smart?

Earthship Brighton, UK.

SOURCE

Here is part of our dilemma. A typical municipality of 50,000 people may go together and get their tax dollars together, and build a coal-fired power plant, or some kind of centralised utility. That process takes a few years to raise the money, once they've commissioned votes on it. Get some architects and engineers to design it for a couple years with the latest best technology. Then get it built for three or four years. And then they've got 50 million dollars in this power plant, and they are stuck with that now. They've got 50 million dollars in it, they've got to use it for 50 years. They're not going to evolve with something new coming out in the next year, because they've already got their 50 million dollars spent.

If the whole world were building these kind of homes, they would be building one every hour or less... and things would be learned every hour.
So our increment of evolution is way down and that's what's necessary to make it through the future.

So where they are is, they are taking their increment of evolution and making it be 50 years. So that's society... a little municipality can't evolve except every 50 years. Well the strongest things on the planet are bacteria and viruses, they evolve ... boom boom boom boom... just like that, as fast as we come up with new antibiotics... they come up with new evolutions, because there are little small simple things. So centralisation limits our evolution to big increments like 50 years. Building one home that has everything in it, hell a home is built every hour on this planet. So we can take our increment of evolution down to an hour, because if the whole world were building these kind of homes, they would be building one every hour or less... and things would be learned every hour. Because every time we build one... we just got the Sutton one almost done... we've got changes to make, because we've learned more. So our increment of evolution is way down and that's what's necessary to make it through the future. If we keep limiting ourselves to 50 year increments of evolution we're just going to go down the tubes.. you know... stuck. It's all about evolution. Centralisation of utilities is killing us... decentralisation gives us a door to the future... so that we can maybe keep up with bacteria and viruses.

Centralisation of utilities is killing us... decentralisation gives us a door to the future
All of a sudden you're in charge of your power, nobody can shut your power off.
You're in charge of your water, you're in charge of your sewage you're in charge of your life.
You own your life.

What we're trying to do is mimic them, we're trying to be like bacterium and viruses... just infect the whole damn planet. So that's a good argument I think, for homes, just the overall concept... for homes doing everything for the people. In addition to that I always look at all the positive things... and there's a lot of them. In addition to help to facilitating more rapid evolution, it empowers people. All of a sudden you're in charge of your power, nobody can shut your power off. You're in charge of your water, you're in charge of your sewage you're in charge of your life. You own your life.

And so we're taking that even further so that... yeah right now you have to buy this, and it's the same game as buying a conventional home,...loans bank payments and so on. That's why we're taking this eve project further, to actually take the economic aspect out of that. So that you can just walk into this eve project and start working and have a place to live, that is decentralised, that is secure. Rather than walking into you know a $1,500 a month mortgage, and going through the begging and pleading for a bank to loan you the money.. .and all of that. I mean still we're doing that too because we're selling earthships right and left, and some people have cash on hand to pay for them, and some still have to get loans. But we have recognized the need for people to just walk off the streets and into this kind of living. And if we are successful, and I'm sure we will be with the eve project . If you know if we can make it happen fast enough, we won't just be building earthships around the world, We'll be building earthship village Ecology's around the world, to just take people off the streets and right into... one an education, two a place to live, three a job that gives them a place to live , and their need for money is going to be down to the point where they could panhandle and get enough for a jug of wine, because that's really all they would need, unless we start making our own booze too! (laughter)

Earthship Seminar Video 2009 - Part 10

I would like to thank Mike Reynolds for giving me permission to transcribe, edit and reformat this work for the Steem Blockchain! If you do read or watch this and have any questions please ask in the comments. I am happy to educate and help you to understand this. Biotecture is amazing in so many ways, and even after 20 years I still have not seen a model of sustainable building that even comes close in so many important areas such as performance, carbon footprint, longevity, ease of build, etc... Now you can also come to understand what Biotecture Really Is about!

READ PREVIOUS TRANSCRIPTS

SESSION 1

Part 1: The Global Model
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-101-learn-with-michael-reynolds-part-1

Part 2: Staying Cool: The Convection Engine
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-transcribed-part-2

Part 3: The Evolution of the Global Model Earthship:
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-part-3

Part 4: Heating your home with body heat in Norway, about permits in USA and Europe... How to get them fast
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt4-heating-your-home-with-body-heat-in-norway-about-permits-in-usa-and-europe-how-to-get-them

Part 5: How to Retrofit, Getting Permits, Tire Toxicity?
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-5-how-to-retrofit-getting-permits-tire-toxicity

Part 6: Bottle / Can Walls, Tyre Foundations / Snow Water
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-6-q-and-a-bottle-can-walls-tyre-foundations-snow-water

Part 7: Can you insure an earthship?, the double/triple greenhouse, the global model evolution + more
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-7-q-and-a-can-you-insure-an-earthship-the-double-triple-greenhouse-the-global-model

Part 8: Final: Year round fruiting trees, sizing greenhouses + more
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-8-final-q-and-a-year-round-fruiting-trees-sizing-greenhouses-more

SESSION 2

Part 1: Water, how to size your roof, choosing the right materials for water catchment.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-1-water-how-to-size-your-roof-choosing-the-right-materials-for-water-catchment

Part 2: Cisterns, Filtering Water, Designing Down & Layered Thinking.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-2-cisterns-filtering-water-designing-down-and-layered-thinking

Part 3: Water! Be Self Sufficient Secure & Sustainable.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-3-water-be-self-sufficient-secure-and-sustainable

Part 4: Botanical Cells, Using Water 4 Times, Food Production.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-4-botanical-cells-using-water-4-times-food-production

Part 5 : The Solar Toilet, Making Mistakes and Evolving is Part of the Process.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-5-the-solar-toilet-making-mistakes-and-evolving-is-part-of-the-process

Part 6: Black Water Treatment In Any Climate, Food Production.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part6-black-water-treatment-in-any-climate-food-production

Part 7: Q&A: Water, Botanical Cells, Water Treatment
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-7-q-and-a-water-botanical-cells-water-treatment

Part 8: About Solar Power, Doing It Yourself? Solar Vs Wind.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part8-about-solar-power-doing-it-yourself-solar-vs-wind

Part 9: SOLAR POWER: Designing Down, Making Smart Choices.
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-9-solar-power-designing-down-making-smart-choices

Did you know, I built four Earthships in India as well as being instrumental the creation of the first Earthship in the UK, Earthship Brighton. If you are also on this path and would like to read my story, I have recently published a book. It is not only a great story, but a valuable resource for you to learn from. I had no experience or training when I embarked on my mission, but managed to successfully build a gorgeous home called Earthship Karuna.

You can buy this book with Steem on the homesteaders co-op. Whilst you are there please do have a look at some of the other products as there are all kinds of great things there!

https://homesteaderscoop.com/product/earthship-chronicles-ebook/

If you don't have any Steem you can also buy the ebook and paperback on amazon.
http://mybook.to/Earthship-Chronicles
or
https://www.amazon.com/Earthship-Chronicles-sufficient-luxurious-experience-ebook/dp/B07MYCBXYB

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