A shed with solar panels

I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.

This is Part 1 of Built to Last: A Reflection on Environmentally Conscientious Woodworking.


For almost a decade, I’ve dreamed of building an off-grid solar system to power my woodworking, provide reliable back-up power for my home, and reduce the number of 2-stroke engines in my life. This was finally the year where I had the time and resources to do it. 

My workshop isn’t big. The 12-foot by 16-foot shed houses not just my tools and workbenches, but also all our yard and gardening supplies, storage for assorted seasonal gear and decorations, and a pile of robot parts. So I needed a compact system that still delivered the amps. 

Building a small off-grid solar system is simpler than you might think. Building a small off-grid solar system that can run power tools is a bit more complicated. 

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Save the Planet, it’s the only one we’ve got… or is it?

In honor of President Obama’s newly announced space exploration plan, I am reposting one of my favorites from the old site. Original comments can be found at the old site.

On this blog, we’ve discussed how many current fisheries practices are completely unsustainable, because we are simply taking too many fish from the oceans. We’ve also discussed how we can’t just stop fishing because too many humans need the food.

We’ve  discussed the energy crisis, and how some the present methods our civilization uses to power our lives are destroying the planet through pollution, environmental destruction, and emissions that cause global warming. We’ve also discussed the fact that people need energy.

We’ve discussed how some current mining practices, such as top-mining, are an environmental catastrophe. However, it is undeniable that we need the minerals that come from mining.

Many more problems are facing the world today. There simply isn’t enough room for all the people we have, and there are more people every day (and less room for them because of sea level rise). Many people today simply don’t have enough fresh water to drink, and thousands die each day from this– a problem that is only getting worse as population increases. The present economic crisis, one of the worst of all time, means that in addition to millions being out of work, governments don’t have money for solutions to these problems.

Things look pretty grim…. but is there any kind of solution that can solve all of these problems at once? A universal solution, as it were (pardon the pun)?

To find it, we need to think well outside of the box. In fact, we need to look in a whole new direction.

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