A solar-powered, self-hosted website

Dries Buytaert built a solar-powered, self-hosted website with a Raspberry Pi to explore sustainable, local-first web hosting. The website at https://solar.dri.es is powered entirely by a solar panel and battery on a roof deck in Boston.

(This) is a hobby project focused on sustainable, solar-powered self-hosting. The goal is to use the smallest, most energy-efficient setup possible, even if it means the website goes offline sometimes. Yes, this site may go down on cloudy or cold days. But don’t worry! When the sun comes out, the website will be back up, powered by sunshine.

This project is driven by my curiosity about making websites and web hosting more environmentally friendly, even on a small scale. It’s also a chance to explore a local-first approach: to show that hosting a personal website on your own internet connection at home can often be enough for small sites. This aligns with my commitment to both the Open Web and the IndieWeb.

The heart of the solar setup is a 50-watt panel from Voltaic, which captures solar energy and delivers 12-volt output. The excess power is stored in an 18 amp-hour Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP or LiFePO4) battery, also from Voltaic.

The website is currently hosted on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. The main reason for choosing the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is its energy efficiency. Consuming just 0.4 watts at idle and up to 1.3 watts under load, it can run on battery for about a week.

Read the details in the post here.


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