Woodstock, 1969 and The Who were playing, just before Jefferson Airplane. At that time I was sadly still under parental control. It took a further eleven years before I finally saw The Who in California. The ’69 festival’s official title was Woodstock Music & Art Fair and it was billed as ‘An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music’.
I’ve still no idea what an Aquarian exposition is, but the bands were certainly singing about ‘My Generation’.
Times have definitely moved on though – and for the even younger festival goer it seems, as the photograph above suggests. Surely we’ve found the youngest ever BMV-700 series and Color Control GX operator? Time to find out more.
Another Woodstock?
Recently I received an email from Leo Yntema who is the Victron Energy Sales Manager for Eastern Europe, The Balkans and Luxembourg. In that email was a forwarded email from a Marek Klonowski of Energy Freedom in Ireland and Mikrogeneracja in Poland – and then I discovered that the original email was from Greenpeace, in Polish, telling me all about Woodstock.
Phew! This was proving to be quite a detective story. Had the real Woodstock started up again? Were the heroes of my youth going to be there?
Sadly it seemed not and it became clear from the email and various websites (once kindly translated using the Google Chrome browser) that we have moved on a long way from the ‘peace and love’ days. Now in the 21st century it is all about the environment. My generation may have sowed those seeds but it took the formation of organisations like Greenpeace (founded in 1971 in Vancouver, Canada) to turn words into action.
Victron Energy powered education
The words in the email were from the EU Energy Powershift Project Officer of Greenpeace, Poland.
With a job title like that, something impressive had to be happening. And it did, as it turned out that from July 30 – August 1 in Kostrzyn in Poland, there was a 21st Woodstock festival with Greenpeace using Victron Energy power in their Ecovillage and in a nearby educational solar panelled shelter, where people could charge devices, learn more about renewable energy and the operation of the equipment itself.
If you don’t speak Polish you can use the Google Chrome browser to directly translate and learn more about Greenpeace’s involvement at the festival, which also champions the development of distributed renewable energy sources in Poland.
If you’ve not got time for that, then there is a good overview of the festival, with an impressive solar tracker in this video:
Victron Energy equipment
In the image below you can see the equipment being installed by Mikrogeneracja, which included:
- 4 x 160 Ah Lithium batteries
- 1 x VE.Bus BMS
- 1 x BMV-700 series
- 1 x Colour Control GX
- 1 x Multiplus 48/5000/70
Charging devices, power supplies & solar yield
Once the equipment was installed under the solar shelter, Mikrogeneracja hooked it up to 250 outlet sockets for charging devices such as phones, laptops and hand power tools, plus there was sufficient battery power for lighting for the evening party – and of course a kettle and toaster for that essential morning-after coffee and a bite to eat!
The solar yield shown below is a screenshot from the event, using Victron Energy’s VRM (Victron Remote Management) portal where Victron equipment can be monitored and even updated remotely. Around 75 kWh of energy was harvested and supplied during the festival.
Here is a link to the VRM site share for the festival: https://vrm.victronenergy.com/site/share/601b5fc6
To see the PV inverter yield, choose the ‘Advanced’ tab, click the ‘Custom date’ toggle (which will be on the top right of your screen) and then set the dates to 28th July – 1st August. Then click ‘Set time’.
Scrolling down the refreshed screen with your chosen dates set, you will then see a graph as below.
Conclusion & Credits
I may have missed this Woodstock too, yet these days it is about far more than youthful angst and music it seems. Clearly renewable energy and companies like Victron Energy have an important role to play at such events, and as we’ve seen in the main headline image – they certainly start Victron installers and operators very young these days!
Many thanks to Leo Yntema of Victron Energy, Anna Meres of Greenpeace and Marek Klonowski of Mikrogeneracja for the information and images that have helped put this blog together.
You can view Greenpeace’s solar powered HQ in Warsaw via their Victron Remote Management (VRM) share:
https://vrm.victronenergy.com/site/share/601b5fc6
For more information about the installers Mikrogeneracja see their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Mikrogeneracja
Or contact Marek Klonowski directly at:
http://www.energyfreedom.ie/Contact
Considering the events, organisations, companies and music detailed in this blog it is clear we are no longer talking about ‘My Generation‘, it is all about the ‘Next Generation’.
In the meantime here’s what it was like in my generation, before renewables became important.
