A visit to Silver Creek Plunge, an Alternate Energy Site
Over this past weekend, we visited what used to be the second largest off-the-grid electrical installation in the state of Idaho, a place known simply as Silver Creek Plunge. Located at one of Idaho’s many natural hot springs, the place features a full size swimming pool built right over a spring, as in the 100 degree F water comes right up through the bottom of the pool. At 540 gallons per minute flow, they don’t even have to use much chlorine, making for a delightful swim. We stayed in one of the many Forest Service campgrounds surrounding the place, and spent many hours soaking, fishing, hiking, etc
But what’s really interesting is their alternate energy installation. Without specific numbers, and just eyeballing their setup (the owner wasn’t even sure of specific numbers himself), they have about a 20KW solar PV panel grid and 1 KW low head, high flow hydroelectric installation, backed up by a 45 KW propane generator. Their deep cycle battery banks take up an entire wall of the battery room and weighs (I’m guessing) in excess of 20 tons. Conversion of the 48VDC battery banks to 110VAC is done by 8 2.5KW Outback Inverters all networked together, giving the place an estimated 20KW of power available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The things that we liked about this installation were these: multiple sources of power, a strong backup option to both provide power AND recharge the battery bank when it gets too low, their choice of high quality equipment, and that it is successful. It gets the job done, effectively. The owner said the installation has almost paid for itself, and he is looking forward to expanding it even more.
The biggest thing I did NOT like about the installation was this: the Solar Panel grid was located well over 200 ft from the battery room, so even at 48 VDC, I estimate they were losing at least 10% of their available power between the panels and the batteries, just to line loss alone. I think I would have found some way to locate the battery building a lot closer to the panels.
This installation was a pretty standard installation, using classic, well-developed and well-understood alternate energy principles. There was no evidence of any of the more cutting edge technologies in use (such as the ones being developed at EvergreenMountainLabs.com), like propane replacement hydrogen generators, gravity converters, zero point energy resonators, or controlled lightning harnessers. Stay tuned for our research on these as it becomes available. Meanwhile, if you need your own more traditional alternate energy system like the one at Silver Creek Plunge, designed, set up, or installed, give us a shout.
Sincerely,
Tim Benedict
