Off-Grid Living

Alpine hut solar power failures in the Rockies happen in seconds and are not recoverable until the following summer. I was asked to review the power system at a backcountry warden cabin near the Icefield Parkway in Banff National Park at 2,340 metres elevation that Parks Canada used for search and rescue operations in the

Border security solar power failures are not random. They are predictable, they happen on the hottest days of the year, and they create a breach window that a patient adversary can exploit. I was asked to review the power and thermal management system for a remote perimeter monitoring station on a pipeline right-of-way in the

Cave exploration solar power failures happen in complete darkness 200 metres from the nearest sunlight. I was asked to review the power system for a speleological survey team from McMaster University mapping the Eramosa Karst Conservation Area near Guelph in Wellington County, Ontario. The team was running a FARO Focus laser scanner and four LED

Wildlife tracking solar stations in grizzly country do not fail slowly. They fail completely in a single encounter, and the data loss is permanent. I was asked to help redesign a wolf telemetry base station in the Bow Valley Wildlife Corridor near Canmore in Alberta that a University of Calgary wildlife biology team had been

Archaeological dig solar power failures are invisible in the data until the excavation team follows a false anomaly. I was asked to review the power system at a late Woodland period village site near Rice Lake in Northumberland County, Ontario. The University of Toronto archaeology field school was excavating under a permit from the Ontario

Volcanic monitoring solar failures are not gradual. They happen fast, in one season, and they take expensive instruments with them. I was asked to review a power system failure at a SO2 spectrometer station on the south flank of a stratovolcano in the Cascades that a USGS volcano hazards team had been operating for 14

Glacier monitoring solar power failures on active ice sheets are compounded failures. The cold kills the battery, the dead battery kills the instrument, and the lost data cannot be recovered because the glacier moved while the system was down. I was asked to review the power system for a strain rate monitoring station on the

Air quality solar power failures at remote monitoring stations create compliance gaps that cannot be retroactively filled. If the regulator requires continuous hourly PM2.5 data and the system goes down at 6 AM those hours are gone. I was called to troubleshoot a recurring data gap problem at a PM2.5 monitoring station on a mine

Seismic monitoring solar power systems corrupt data in a way that is genuinely difficult to distinguish from tectonic activity. I was asked to review a data quality problem at a broadband seismic monitoring station in the Charlevoix Seismic Zone near Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. The station ran a Nanometrics Trillium Compact broadband seismometer connected to a Centaur

Radio repeater solar failures in northern Ontario have a specific failure signature. The repeater does not go silent all at once. I was called to diagnose a solar power failure at a VHF emergency services repeater on a ridge site above Chapleau in the Sudbury District. This site served as the primary link for OPP