2024 Was a monumental year for camp Bao Chicka Wow Wow. It marked year 9 for the camp at the Burn and completed the serving of over 50,000 steamed buns throughout this term. It also marked year 2 of a major solar initiative, scaling up a system design from 18 panels and 30 kwh of batteries to 86 panels and 107 kwh of energy storage and 36KW of sustained Inverter output capacity.

CAMP OVERVIEW

A little more context about the camp that might bring to light what is possible with solar: We're 93 people, with half the camp based in SF and the rest from NYC and around the world. The camp logistics are also based in SF which allowed for equipment to be assembled and driven from the city.

None of us had any solar background before last year, but turning to YouTube and a will to make a change was all that was needed.

BRINGING PORTABILITY TO COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT

Solar and battery options on the market were either too small & not price effective (Jackery, Bluetti) or too big and designed for permanent installation, so we took it upon ourselves to design our own. Our solar lead had a background in concert touring a production so we adopted techniques and form factors used in that industry for rapid deployment and robustness and integrated top of the line commercial equipment that also has fantastic value at the dollar-per-watt measure.

This approach proved incredibly successful. We not only were completely able to transition our existing loads, but actually expand our amenities at the camp including a restaurant capacity ice machine and two 11,000 CFM evaporative coolers - converting the desert heat into endless 68 degree air.

2024 WINS

  • BECAME THE LARGEST FOOD OFFERING CAMP POWERED COMPLETELY BY SOLAR

    Served 4000 steamed bao, hosted "Oh Hell Naan" food pop-up, and had thousands pass through and get fed at our Night Market

  • LAUNCHED THE FIRST PUBLIC MUTANT VEHICLE & EV CHARGING STATION

    Charged "Mothership" by Titanics End, as well as dozens of E-bikes and other art cars needing a boost

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  • POWERED THE TEMPLE BUILDERS GUILD CAMP AND WORKSHOP

    The Temple Builders Guild turned to us to build a system to power their build site workshop and camp

  • DEPLOYED A COOLING TENT WITH A 11,000 CFM EVAPORATIVE COOLER

    Maintained a 1000 sqft cooling tent at 68 degrees consuming only 500 watts of power using an evaporative cooler

  • ADDED A 500 LB/DAY ICE MACHINE

    Eliminated the purchase of ice on playa for both the camp and campers

  • RESCUED A MAROONED SHIP

    Charged the Doublethyme art car who's battery had drained and needed a boost

COMPONENTS OF THE SOLUTION

We designed three types of solar canopies in separate arrays & grids.

The rationale behind having the three distinct grids was that it would isolate overcapacity of load - ensuring there was plenty of power available for the kitchen appliances and camp lighting. Our battery bank was heavily weighted to our core infrastructure as this was where our energy load would be at night. The load for the charging station and the cooling tent & camper power would be needed almost exclusively during the day.

1. SHIPPING CONTAINER ARRAY

Using two existing 20' containers as support structure on the sides we needed to only add a few pipes to span across the two placed 20' apart. This 20' x 20' shade structure can fit 24 panels, and adding awnings to the front and back it is infinitely expandable. We paired these panels with a 12kw output inverter (EG4 18kPV)

2. CAMP SHADE STRUCTURE ARRAY

A self-supported shade structure using solar panels instead of tarps provided both power and shade to the campers below as well as to the adjacent cooling tent. Nearly identical in design to commonly used shade structure but with stronger aluminum pipe and connectors. Setup time ended up being faster than tarp-based shade structure. We had 24 panels in this array which was far more than necessary for the load. We paired a 5kw SolArk inverter with this grid.

3. MUTANT VEHICLE & E-BIKE CHARGING ARRAY

Designed to look like a futuristic fueling station, we took a little creative liberty but still maintained simplicity. 36 panels formed one long slanted side and covered a 12' tall roof. The form was highly efficient at capturing sun and providing shade. The inverter setup was 3-Phase, 18kw output (3x6kw inverters EG46000xp)

In scaling our design from 2023 we still maintained these core principles:

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

Solar Panel Shade Structure

Thirty-six 410-watt solar panels from Mission Solar: Providing robust and reliable energy generation.

VIEW SOLAR SHADE KITS

INVERTER

EG4 18kPV

12,000 Watt continuous output in 120/240V and three solar inputs with 18KW capacity

VIEW PRODUCT

BATTERIES

107 KWH of Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries: Built into 15kwh modular racks, these allowed us to efficiently transfer energy to our core camp power grid and share power where needed

VIEW PRODUCT

DATA COLLECTION

Consumption data coming from both the inverter and at individual devices through smart plugs relayed to Home Assistant

VIEW PRODUCTS

KEY LEARNINGS

  • Core infrastructure needed a minimum of 30 Panels to meet Daily Consumption of 60 KWH
  • 54% of a day’s consumption took place on Battery
  • Consumed ~60 KWH on highest consumption day (24 Hours)
  • Lowest daily power production per 410watt panel was 2KWH, which was about 66% Efficiency, highest documented was 85%
  • Highest amount of battery consumed was 32.9 KWH per day.
  • Instead of 3 grids we will do two grids next year combining the camper /cooling tent grid with core infrastructure, but still keeping the Mutant Vehicle charging separate.

We were honored to be part of the theme camp kitchen tour, showing how we powered a high volume kitchen and large camp all on solar.

Our Mutant Vehicle and E-Bike charging station soaking in rays and outputting 18,000 watts of power.

Looking Ahead

We're thrilled with the response to our modular system design and how it performed in the tough conditions on the playa and we want to help others succeed with their transition to solar, hybrid, & battery systems. Now available are the exact components we used available as purchasable and rentable pre-build systems, as well as kits of pre-selected connectors and clamps for solar shade structures. Keep an eye out as we expand and further refine these components!