The RAT Sponsors These Online Courses*
Whether for an art installation, theme camp, or other uses, you can choose to purchase a complete off the shelf system, or build your own system. The RAT believes strongly that the first step in designing and building a successful system is to have a basic understanding about how renewable energy works. We encourage everyone who is new to using renewable energy for powering their installations to first complete the RAT's Solar Power 101 online course.
The online Solar Power 101 course covers how to analyze, design and build solar power systems. The lectures are broken down into bite size, self paced, modules. Each video module is about 10 minutes long. If you are interested in additional information you can click on the Dig Deeper buttons for a deeper dive into solar. At the end we have a Q&A session to help wrap up the lecture.
This course is for Black Rock City camps in general but it is also geared for the Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps (BLAST) criteria. An electrical load analysis or electrical inventory is a baseline to help understanding the camps electrical usage. This opens the door to become more energy efficient and that, in turn, helps reduce air pollution and our carbon footprint. Once understood it is a simple process to do. Also, it's the first step in building and acquiring a solar or wind power system.
How To Do An Electrical Energy Inventory For Your Camp by Bruce Cooper
How much electrical power does your camp consume? What size generator or solar power system do you need? Can it power a refrigerator, freezer, lights, or sound system? What other devices will your campers need to power, such as 2-way radios, water pumps, or electric bikes? What else? How much will it cost to power everything? How can I reduce my carbon footprint?
Complete a system or installation electrical load analysis to determine the desired system capacity.
Solar Powered System Estimator User’s Guide by Doug Hanson
This user guide is intended to help the novice or mid-level builder use the Solar Powered System Estimator spreadsheet (currently v2.4). The spreadsheet will help the builder to quantify their solar power needs in a step by step fashion and ultimately output the key system parameters of a system design based on those figures. This guide will take you through each section.
For artists and the "solar curious"
At many weekly RAT meetings we record a Skills Sharpening mentoring session. As of December 2023 we have thirty-seven sessions available for viewing.
How solar power was used at Burning Man 2023 "Animalia"
A burner community lead presentation about 2022 accomplishments and future planning at Burning Man 2022 "Waking Dreams"
What is happening with renewable energy on the playa?
* For the Burning Man Hive online courses login using your burner profile:
Anyone can view the RAT's Hive activties. Go to this link to sign-up for a Burning Man profile: