Solarpunk

Sitting here in foggy January. The solar on the roof still powers the whole building. The 3D printer is printing something, also solar powered. A little server is running next to me, also solar powered. Posting on a decentralized global communication network.

I make biodiesel for my farm and have as many solar panels hooked to the grid as allowed. I'm also learning how to do my own seed saving.

May be: I own a FrameWork laptop (bought the older generation new, because it is fast enough for me, but I want to support them). Also I self host a couple of web services myself (music streaming, file storage, RSS). I also live in a shared flat (although I could afford my own appartment) and take the bike to go everywhere in the city.

I dont know if that counts as solar punk. However, I think that many of the comments are very inspiring :D

• I am trying to do self hosted services and storage at home for my digital stuff. This helps minimize e-waste since I follow a model of upgrade my primary device, then deprecate the previous system to hosting duty
• we do composting and try to do as much zero waste food as possible
• I garden for polinators and vegetables in the free space around our house. I have some grass for the kids/dog but we use no chemicals on any of our plants/yard
• 2 50 gallon rain barrels
• goal for next year is partial solar and additional waste reduction.
• I also started a job that is ~1 mile from home vs 37 each way so my fuel consumption basically dropped to 0

I work on a wind farm and I'm preparing to build an earthship home. I have an electric bike and I'm also a raging democratic socialist.

I live in the most sustainable city on the planet, Gothenburg, Sweden. And one of the most environmentally friendly apartment buildings in that city. The building is a special project where they test new sustainability stuff and other cool tech and things. Not sure I'm comfortable linking to a page about the building, as it shows photos and the exact location, but I wrote more extensively about it a couple of months back so I'll go find that comment as soon as I have time and add it here.

Other than that, I'm vegan, only buy second hand clothes, furniture, kitchenware etc. I only walk, bike and use trams. Most devices I get secondhand and use till they're unrepairable (or at least would cost more to repair than get another secondhand one) and if I ever find like a phone real cheap before my current one is dead I give it away to family or friends that need it. There's a lot more minor things, and probably stuff I'm forgetting.

I've had and have a hard life where I can't do most of the things I want due to anxiety, so I'm extremely proud to have gotten to where I am with all the stuff above.

We live in a small village with a bakery and a local farmer store at walking distance from the house.

I'm working remotely in a repurposed train station. The whole station had been turned into a third space last year and quite a lot of events are happening there.

Today there was a presentation of different initiatives happening in the valley, i found two initiatives particularly interesting.

The first one is a cooperative ISP provider, I'll change my provider to join them.

The second one is another cooperative that is installing renewable energy and offering "collective self consumption". To simplify it: when my neighbor's solar panels are overproducing I can buy it directly from him. The rest of the time I'm using electricity from my regular provider.

Except that in this case it's organized in the scale of several villages.

We have solar panels, battery backup and a plug in hybrid car. It gets us just about anywhere locally we need to go without needing gas. We just got a 3d printer and I'm already thinking of dozens of things around the house I can fabricate now. We have a VR I can use to work out downstairs (beat saber!). Not to mention this cool miniature computer with internet access I can use anywhere I go.

Hoping to add a garden in the next year or so to grow herbs, fruits and veggies.

I am living my life in such a way that I mostly get to choose to use my time to do what I want, in ways that work for my bodymind. I participate in my community with my chosen family. I don't buy things that I don't actually need, I try to make due with what I have, and fix things that need fixing and mend things that need mending as much as possible. I write and create and share knowledge and skills freely and help others, especially for causes that are life-affirming and nourishing of people and planet. I live in a walkable community connected with electric trains. I cook and eat fresh, healthy, mostly locally sourced foods. I strive to move through the world in ways that spread hope, joy, beauty, love, connection, and awareness.

I am fortunate to be able to live in a country where all of this is more possible than the country I came from. I want more people to be able to experience this life (and to be able to maintain it myself, which is admittedly looking a bit dicey these days.) I want this more slow, mindful, and convivial way of life to be normalized as the "good life."

Remote working from the countryside, taking my electric car (second hand, cheap, low range but recharged daily) to the fablab to discuss our current projects:

• A solarpunk video game (in discussion)
• A publicly funded research program about automating small scale production of several intermediate vehicles, focusing on Vhélio, an electric cargo bike. (ongoing, funded)
• A plastic press for making plastic sheets our of recycled plastic (done with 2 industrial partners, currently suspended but funded and started)

Last weekend I went to a local non-profit event of resistance against the far-right. Yesterday I got a call to help form a citizen's list for the next municipal elections.

To think that I went as far as rural Japan to find the things that I was looking for and that they were waiting for me in my native country (France), just next to where my parents live.

We have solar panels and a backup battery for when the grid goes down. Our panels generate more than we generally use (we overbuilt on purpose) but we could run almost indefinitely as long as the panels are clear. There are two totes hooked up to a gutter on the back of our garage which provide 550 gallons of water storage that we use to water gardens and top up our duck pond. The ducks and chickens do most of our insect maintenance in the gardens.

I'm working on additional shelving in our cellar in order to be able to store more of our canning from the gardens; most of the material is reclaimed pallet wood from a nearby business. We've also got two slightly damaged solar panels that I'd like to use to circulate the water in the duck pond - pump and lift to flow through some uphill garden space back down to the pond after it's been filtered by the plants - and to provide some power to the bird coop for water heaters and maybe a light source.

My clothes last me an unusual amount of time when compared with most people I think (15 year old tshirts) and don't really buy clothes at all unless something is at the limit of repairability or looking very bad.

I want to ride my bike more. I work from home so I use it mostly to go the gym but I want to use for more things. Like shopping and stuff like that. I'm thinking of buying an electric one to help out since I live in a city with steep hills and an electric one would make it more likely to use.

I would really like to reduce my reliance on the electrical grid and have solar panels and a rainwater collection system. I also wanna have a bigger archive of music albums and movies.