The Solar Saucer

The Solar Saucer will be used to provide solar power to participants all over the playa

The Flyin Mayan

This rendering was done by Martin Stensas

The SEMR

The solar electric moon rover has two solar panels mounted to the top, its own charge controller and 8 6 volt batteries. The SEMR plugs into the saucer and provides 8 more batteries to the mobile solar powered sound system as well as 400 watts of photo valtaic power. The SEMR has a symbiotic relationship with the saucer as it charges it and gets a charge from it.

The SEMR has been undergoing some serious modifications, here’s a little clip from the install of the lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfAqEIC9ZF8

Desert Rocks Music Festival is Utah’s largest Jam Band music festival in the middle of the Utah desert. 8 miles south of Moab, the Desert Rocks crew have build an amazing venue to listen to 50+ bands.

The Solar Saucer Cosmonauts brought out everything for this event. I lost count on the number of full box truck loads that we hauled into Moab Utah.

Our latest creation, Big Blue, powered the whole electronic sound village for 4 days and nights along side the solar saucer.

We hauled out the Sol Lun, our solar powered Wiskey bar and hosted all kinds of bands and DJs on our stage. All powered by the sun.

In total, we hauled out 38 deep cycle batteries, set up 4 separate solar and wind systems, built 20 custom LED lighting arrays, installed over 30 custom art pieces, built a stage, shade area, the Sol Lun and Tipi, we ran a whiskey bar, played alot of music, served coffee and fresh juice, took people on tours to the mine and knocked people over in “Boulder Alley!”

We had so much fun yesterday at the 7th anual Live Green Festival. This is the 3rd year we have provided solar power to this event and this year we went bigger than ever. We showed up with all three of our rigs and powered the sound, beer garden and all of the food vendors. The weather was great, lots of sustainable vendors and a really amazing fashion show, all in front of the salt lake city building.

April 22, 2010 is the one official day out of the year where we focus our attention on the planet that we live on. Thousands of people came down to Liberty park and played in the beautiful weather.

We were invited to bring the Solar Saucer and play some solar music for the people in the park. We had two events that day so half the crew showed up with the saucer and the other half headed up to Park City for the Mountain Town Stages Earth Day Festival. Sunday we brought out big blue, our veggie powered solar generator and we talked the producer of the event into unplugging from the grid and plugging into our battery bank. Here’s a little video clip of both the events and some photos.

some video

Park City holds a Sunday Farmers market all summer long and we often show up and provide a little green power to their stage. We have powered everything from live bands and DJs to belly dancers and silk performers.

I found it very interesting when the on guard highway patrolman told me that I had a snowball chance in hell in getting the saucer on the capitol steps. “I’ve worked here for 7 years and Ive never seen a vehicle out there on the capitol plaza.” Well, when we rolled up for the Buttarspolooza human rights rally, they moved the baracades and escorted us right to the front. Funny how that happens. This was an amazing event, 1000+ people came out to show their disdain for Republican Senetor and Moron Bishop Chris Buttars for his comments regarding prop 8 that “they gays are the biggest threat to this country’s national security.” “The Gays,  the queers and weirdos all showed up to voice their opinion on the steps of the Utah capitol.  And a huge threat they were, I was running for my life.

AKA James Barker has been performing live for over a decade and keeps the musical heart beat flowing here in SLC. He has played in projects such as Conspiracy Freak, 7 Billion and his current incarnation of Karate Chop.