Monthly Archives: Saturday May 15th, 2010

We had a fun open door day!

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Today we had our open house for the Solar Days, and it was a success! Nine people showed up, from as far away as Oudewater, Amersfoort and Maarsen. Niels Thijssen of Renewable Energy: NOW! () also dropped by and generously donated a bag of Greenchoice shower timers – much appreciated!  A tenth visitor e-mailed me that we didn’t open the door for him, which is odd because we were certainly at home all day, but I’ll make an appointment for a later date with him.

I forgot to take a picture but the atmosphere was good, and I hope I was able to answer all questions to everyone’s satisfaction. The unofficial mailing list of the participants show positive experiences. Someone received 28 (!) visitors in one day. I don’t think we would have been able to handle that number.

I think we can call it a success and I’m sure we’ll participate again next year!

Open door day for the Solar Days next Saturday

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Poster on a plastic recycling container

The day after tomorrow, Saturday May 15th, we have an open door day for people interested in solar energy and other sustainable things.

Between 12:00 and 18:00 we’ll have the coffee (produced on solar power) ready and I’ll try to answer any questions about solar energy and sustainable energy.

The weather forecast can go either way, but I hope it’ll be at least a little bit sunny so that I can show our electricity meter running backwards.

I hope to see you Saturday! The address is Jan van der Heydenstraat 113, Hilversum.

(If Hilversum is too far for you, here’s a map with all households in the Netherlands who organise an open door day. There is probably one near you.)

I ordered a book: De file voorbij (Beyond traffic congestion)

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De file voorbij - Kris Peeters

Through the very interesting website Lowtech Magazine () I stumbled upon the book De file voorbij () by the Belgian writer Kris Peeters (). Among other things, he works for the mobility laboratory Baanbrekers (). If I interpret the book review on Lowtech Magazine correctly then the author has a very special outlook on mobility, one that doesn’t take the hegemony of the automobile for granted.

I have questioned () large scale and thoughtless automobile usage before on this website (that article is still one of the most read ones on this website) from the position of sustainability, but to my suprise that article drew a fierce response from several commenters. It made it very clear to me that although people can be bothered to install energy efficient lighting, buy an energy-efficient washing machine and even contemplate the installation of solar panels – but Do. NOT. Touch. The. Car. It seems that most people regard driving their as a god-given right, and let no one touch that right.

One of my reasons for buying this book is that I’m very curious about the arguments and lines of reasoning the auther follows to question the large scale and thoughtless automobile usage, as soon as I’ve read it I will of course post a little book review, although Lowtech Magazine did this already, and much more extensive () than I could ever do it.

Façade-mounted solar panels need a permit

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Op de gevel gemonteerd

Mounting solar panels on a house in the Netherlands has never required a permit, except when you live in a monument or otherwise protected environment. Both roof-mounted and  façade-mounted panels required nor permit.

This last case has become an exception: if you want to mount solar panels on the façade of your house, like our solar awning on the picture on the right, this will require a permit. This was announced last week in a letter () by VROM (the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) which answers a number of questions about this subject.

I can partly understand this, it’s possible to build very ugly contraptions with façade-mounted solar panels, but on the other hand I’m afraid this will make installation of solar panels impossible in some situations, for instance when some one doesn’t have suitable roof space available. I don’t expect it to be very big problem, as the majority of solar panels by far are installed on roofs. And of course, the requirement for a permit doesn’t automatically mean the panels can’t be installed, but there’s always the chance that a permit is refused.

So keep this in mind when you’re planning to install solar panels on the façade of your house!

Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment