Firefly bicycle power

[Kevin Parcell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8G4kRH9VlU

A correspondent just shared this link to a vid promoting pedal-power
as a lighting solution near Kolkata. This seems a very good place for
a People Power Station. They need WBR's Buffalo bicycles, and some
better electronics could multiply the efficiency of the design
illustrated.

[Johanna Parry Cougar]

wow...this is very cool...





~When one breathes the consciousness of the divine,
prayers become answered, through inspiration.

Evol ution = love  moving from now, to now.

www.natural-villages.org         www.hamsa-yoga.org

> Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:41:10 -0800
> Subject: Firefly bicycle power
> From: kjpa...@gmail.com
> To: occupy-...@googlegroups.com

[kjparcell]

That's what I'm talkin bout!

[Prashant Sachdev]

This is great video that demonstrates the power. Technical feasibility has never been a problem with pedal-power and am sure more and more improvements are available now.

With hawkers and various semi-urban and rural area - I see a lot of business possibilities. It is important to work on various business models by leveraging whatever pedal-power technologies available in the area. 

I am available to work on this personally and shall loop in other members of Net Impact Pune and / or even hire professionals if the pilot shows positive results.

Thanks

Prashant

[kjparcell]

Prashant, I think that would be excellent if NIPune is able to draft a general business model for People Power Stations focusing on the margin possible with the pedal-power approach. Acumen Fund's portfolio director for energy and water in India has asked us to present either a business model or a proof of concept through a demonstration project. My focus has been on the proof because I'm a project director, and because the local-currency aspect is difficult to monetize without that.

As a member of NIPune, please let me know how I might assist.

[Prashant Sachdev]

We would be glad to get-started. However, I would never start to draft
a business model based on all assumptions. In case we do, it won't be
of much value to Acumen Fund director and other similar stakeholders.

Instead a better approach would be to draft a plan for pilot that
would basically test the business feasibility capitalizing on
pedal-power product available in Pune and nearby area to start with. I
shall definitely have a chat with social entrepreneurs in Maharashtra
who have pedal-power technologies developed and we can have a further
conversation in terms of business models.

Thanks
Prashant

[kjparcell]

On Dec 12, 2011, at 11:34 AM, Prashant Sachdev <prashant...@gmail.com> wrote:

> We would be glad to get-started. However, I would never start to draft
> a business model based on all assumptions. In case we do, it won't be
> of much value to Acumen Fund director and other similar stakeholders.

Would you please clarify this? Did you mean to say "NOT based on all assumptions"?

>
> Instead a better approach would be to draft a plan for pilot that
> would basically test the business feasibility capitalizing on
> pedal-power product available in Pune and nearby area to start with. I
> shall definitely have a chat with social entrepreneurs in Maharashtra
> who have pedal-power technologies developed and we can have a further
> conversation in terms of business models.

Ashish is still working with us regarding his Chakra pedal-power system, and he is the pedal-power engineer for our pilot location, Vigyan Ashram, so please consider chatting with him first.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Johanna Parry Cougar]

Ashish at Vigyam Ashraam is also wanting Natural Villages to host a pilot adobe house project there, Kevin.

Our Indian NV Director Lohit Gargh has been speaking with him.

I haven't been able to get to India due to lack of finances this year, and this is the only thing really holding it up:inability to train them in the building process.

I haven't had the ability to bring our director's to me for training, either, and so this project may sit until I can get there..

pedal -power and the natural-villages process and projects go so naturally together...sigh

onward and upward...

www.natural-villages.org

~When one breathes the consciousness of the divine,
prayers become answered, through inspiration.

Evol ution = love  moving from now, to now.

www.natural-villages.org         www.hamsa-yoga.org

[kjparcell]

Johanna, I expect to be at an environmental education center in Costa Rica for several months this coming year creating video guides to natural systems used there, including the use of natural building techniques. Ultimately, I believe this is the correct direction because we can scale resources like this to everyone.

Do you think creating something like that for the adobe building process is practical? Also, there are likely many existing resources of this sort. Would you consider using your network to gather video resources in the public domain that you think might be valuable to natural building?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Johanna Parry Cougar]

There are a lot of earth building videos out there, and certainly I can scout around for the best ones.

Michael Smith will let me know---he made a few.

Give me a lil time for this, and THANKS!!!

(lucky, going to Costa Rica!!!) hehehhhe hehe

~When one breathes the consciousness of the divine,
prayers become answered, through inspiration.

Evol ution = love  moving from now, to now.

www.natural-villages.org         www.hamsa-yoga.org

> From: kjpa...@gmail.com
> Subject: Re: Firefly bicycle power

[Johanna Parry Cougar]

I also have  problem with the video guy insulting the laborer by instructing him not to "laze around"

I understand there is often a problem with lack of industriousness in some very poor Indian families, yet much of this

has become so-- due to nutritional deficits and lack of opportunities and education combined with a "giving up" because

life can be so difficult in rural India.

To bring light--shouldn't we also be bringing LOVE???

To me love does not involve insulting other beings...?

Am I overreacting??? Curious about others thoughts on this.

~When one breathes the consciousness of the divine,
prayers become answered, through inspiration.

Evol ution = love  moving from now, to now.

www.natural-villages.org         www.hamsa-yoga.org

---

From: light...@msn.com
To: occupy-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Firefly bicycle power
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:41:28 -0800

[kjparcell]

Johanna, I share your vision of natural villages as a path to beautiful, quality, affordable housing.  I hope to join you building a People Power Station soon. Perhaps that pilot adobe house at Vigyan Ashram could be our joint-project headquarters?  That would kill many birds with one stone, including providing us with affordable accommodations ;)

Kevin J. Parcell

http://kevinparcell.net

[Kevin Parcell]

Thank you, Prashant

I want to set an approximate launch date for this pilot in 2012 so
that I can start planning to be there. I think we need perhaps six
months to organize once we have a date. That will give us time to
present Vigyan Ashram with the simple proposal that you suggest for
the demonstration project so that Yogesh can bring it to his directors
for formal approval. When approved, then we can all help you using
the information from your research to assemble the components. As we
approach launch, I want to be there to document on film the final
steps and then the beginning of people benefitting from the work
opportunity and from the lights. We can share these vids in segments
through YouTube so that all of our team who can't join us can track
our progress and contribute their ideas.

A very important part of this is being able to show everyone the
actual local money, to make it real. I want to have a paper currency
to accomplish that, and I can also work on that online with all of
you. I'd also like to launch the online system simultaneously with the
demo project. This will need to be no more at first than a website
where people can join locally, and so that members can establish
accounts, but it will eventually become an online marketplace where
they can trade locally with SunMoney using mobiles, as well as trade
globally with national currency.

I'm focusing now on preparing to travel to Costa Rica (and of course
the Christmas and New Year holidays are almost upon us), but I'll have
the first part of a networking campaign underway before the end of the
next month, to gather support from people around the globe.

Cheers,
Kevin

On Dec 12, 11:34 am, Prashant Sachdev <prashant.sach...@gmail.com> wro