Green Powered GV

Gaia Vista (GV) is to be a completely Green Alternative Powered Sustainable Center and Community in Costa Rica.

We will be completely off-the-grid and will be using state of the art green technologies.

Gaia Vista is to become a living model of Sustainability in action, and when coupled with the internet and our solar wi-fi communication center will soon become a global hub for the promotion of green technologies and sustainable practices worldwide.

Next Generation LED Light Bulbs

The pace of innovation in the field of LED illumination, also referred to as Solid State Lighting (SSL), has recently progressed at such a rapid pace that the Compact Fluorescent Bulb that is now gaining in popularity is already obsolete. Compact Fluorescent Bulbs or CFL's, although much more efficient than the now obsolete incandescent light bulb, are not really very environmentally friendly at all.

One of things that a lot of people don't know is that these "green" CFL bulbs are made with mercury and pose a danger to our environmental health. There is currently no efficient recycling program for these toxic CFL bulbs and as we throw out our old bulbs we are filling our landfills with toxic mercury. The mercury then seeps into our water tables and becomes a part of our environmental food chain; surely not a very green choice at all.

Next Generation LED light bulbs are the most environmentally friendly light source other than pure sunlight. LEDs are rated to have a 50,000+ hour lifespan, that's 50 times longer life than the obsolete incandescent bulbs, and 5 times the life of the so called "green" compact florescent bulbs. The answer is clear, new LED light bulbs are truly the most efficient way to light up the future of mankind.

The Earth LED bulb shown here only draws 5 watts of electricity, and performs like a 60 Watt light bulb. This next generation light bulb is an example of the cutting edge green technologies that will be showcased at Gaia Vista.

Micro Hydro Power

Our property is abundant with water, having 3 streams and a river; it is the perfect place for micro hydro alternative power.  Some examples of the types of micro hydro units we will using are below:

Harris Pelton Turbines
The Harris Pelton turbines are suited well to higher head and lower flow situations, and can provide up to 2500 Watts of power.

One of the beauties of micro hydro vs. solar is that it creates power 24hours a day.

This small unit alone could power 500 of the 60watt equivalent LED bulbs above -way more than enough to handle all the lighting for our entire resort - plus this is assuming all the lights are on 24 hours a day.

This unit is perfect for powering parts of GV and for bringing our Rainforest Spring Water directly to our community. Our Rainforest Spring is about 400 ft above the main part of our resort and is perfect for using the Harris Pelton Turbine.

As water leaves the Pelton wheel it needs to return to the river, and we can then use it to create natural fountains, a pool, and for irrigation before letting the water naturally returns to the river

ESD Turgo Generators
These turbines work better in lower head (height) situations, and would work well on other parts of our property

AQUAIR Submersible Generator
This type requires no pipeline at all, it just would be submersed in the river, and then would provide us with power

Larger Micro Hydro Units
We would also have to option to use larger systems if needed. That’s the beauty of having so much water on our property. Powering GV off-the-grid with alternative green power should be fairly easy to do.

Solar Power Generation

Green Technologies are constantly advancing, and it is the mission of the GV Sustainability Center to try and showcase and educate people about the best of these technologies.

Nanosolar’s SolarPly™ is our current #1 choice for solar power generation. Nanosolar has developed a proprietary process technology that makes it possible to produce a 100x thinner solar cell 100x faster; which basically translates to a company that can creat solar panels inexpensively and rapidly.

Nanosolar has leveraged recent science in nanostructured materials, and have developed a critical mass of engineering advances that profoundly change the cost efficiency and production scalability of solar electricity cells and panels.

Initial Construction Phase Solar Power

During the initial construction phase we will be using PowerFilms® rollable solar panels. These are presently available and efficient in generating solar power.

Flywheel Energy Storage

Flywheel systems store energy kinetically rather than chemically. Instead of using environmentally hazardous lead plates submerged in sulfuric acid, flywheels use the inertia of a spinning mass to store and regenerate power.  We plan on being the first people in Costa Rica to use this type of energy storage.

Ram Pumps

The majority of our water will be collected from spill off from the Pelton wheel above.  For certain other areas of our community we can use a Ram Pump which can pump water from a flowing source of water to a point above that source with no power requirement They can lift water up to 125 feet, and provide   flow rates of up to 2.75 gal/min. Larger capacity models are also available.

100% Solar Powered Web Hosting

The web page that you are presently reading is served to you through a 100% solar powered server network. We will also have solar wi-fi throughout the main part of GV.

More Green GV updates coming soon!

We invite you to become a part of Gaia Vista.
We are presently divining for: owners, partners, full time and part time eco-village members and volunteers to help fully materialize the Gaia Vista Vision.