[Gaviotas] Friends of Gaviotas newsletter

[Bill Christensen]

Hey folks,

I just received the Friends of Gaviotas newsletter below.  I figured 
some of you may not have seen it yet.

BC



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Friends of Gaviotas Update January 2009
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-- Paolo Lugari on the Latest (from a recent phone conversation)
-- Updated Website

Happy New Year!

We are using a new email system to manage our contact list. Our 
updates will be infrequent and short. We hope you will enjoy 
receiving occasional news about Gaviotas. If not, feel free to 
unsubscribe below.


		Paolo Lugari on the Latest (from a recent phone conversation)
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		 By natural law, energy is neither created nor 
destroyed - it simply transforms from one medium into another. No 
matter where you are, it is always there for the taking. One might 
even say that it is so close, that most people are unable to see it! 
One should always use all the locally available energy first - tap 
all locally available resources first - before even thinking of 
bringing in energy from somewhere else. In that spirit, here is what 
Gaviotas has done recently:

For years, Gaviotas has been generating its electricity by means of a 
steam turbine running on wood culled from its forest. This year, the 
villagers have developed a novel fuel mix made of turpentine 
(distilled resin tapped from the pine trees in the forest) and plant 
oil (extracted from the fruit of the palm trees in the forest or from 
recycled cooking oil) that now runs all their diesel engines - 
electric generators, tractors, and soon trucks as well. All that was 
needed were stainless steel filters (developed in-house) to replace 
the regular paper oil filters in their engines. This new fuel mix 
doesn't require any changes to the engines' diesel fuel injection 
pumps.


Gaviotas features a community dining hall that is very popular with 
the villagers. Its kitchen makes about 200 meals a day. The massive 
cooking stoves have now been equipped with internal piping through 
which water is heated to near boiling and is then circulated without 
a pump, simply via natural convection (thermosiphon). This new heat 
exchange system replaces the 30 solar collectors that used to sit on 
the roof of the dining hall. The old collectors (also thermosiphon 
with no moving parts) are still in top shape, so they will simply get 
a new paint job and be sold for $1,000 a piece!

Biodiversity in the Gaviotas forest continues to increase. The 
villagers have planted a mix of pine and palm, and now fruit trees, 
and nature is adding the rest: hundreds of native plant and animal 
species are emerging that had not been seen on these arid plains in 
ages.


		Updated Website
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		 We've updated the Friends of Gaviotas website with 
new content, images, downloads, and links. If you haven't visited it 
recently, you may want to check out what's new.

Due to the large volume of email that we receive, we are unable to 
respond to everyone individually. As a result, we have added a page 
addressing the top questions that are asked, such as visiting 
Gaviotas and obtaining information about their technologies.

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Llz2HpHQ45Rom_XwCOgkx6xcg1KkOk8TWFNyfFD5T8E47YerVcSIMnKw8u07kYeQc9SwzUstq8Af5EZ1HbpBIVCrzd4heMh07j0d6EJsFyRYknVOopWNoPxnA_5eCjI1>Visit 
FAQ page...



		Contact Information
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email: <mailto:amigos at friendsofgaviotas.org>amigos at friendsofgaviotas.org
web: 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Llz2HpHQ45SzMjWNA41cC95eaPLs43LBxPyHh3HC1i2AfRjhN8LxesqvvqBapRZvqFBlJ1DWjpFKQcqe2BvcZ_gPrtm3hqTceJIghdx17sCvdl0yPoq9Bw==>http://www.friendsofgaviotas.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- 
Bill Christensen
<http://greenbuilder.com/contact/>

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