Casal uses solar energy and recycles more than 800 notebook batteries for energy storage, in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Camille Goodman and Syd Crawford live in Come on, rural residential area of New South Wales, in Australia. This region was severely impacted by a series of forest fires between 2019 and 2020. In fact, the fires approached the couple's residence, who since then decided to change their lives, using notebook batteries to develop a solar energy storage system.

Couple decided to change lifestyle and live without emitting polluting gases

Syd and Camille say that they started to calculate the amount of emissions acceptable for each one. Calculating your own CO2 gas emissions is a practice known as a carbon footprint, and this made the couple look for a lifestyle with zero carbon emissions.

According to Camille, the more it was analyzed, it was observed that there is not an adequate amount, so it was necessary to aim at zero emissions or as close to it as possible. The couple's first step was to install solar energy panels in their home, thus supplying the energy demands from a clean and renewable source.

In addition, the system is off-grid, as the couple themselves created an energy storage component using recycled notebook batteries. Crawford reveals that he bought the old batteries by the kg, disassembled each one and tested all the cells, discarding what could not be reused.

Notebook batteries have about 6 cells and sometimes there may be only one with a failure, but the rest is fine for use.

Couple gathers 800 batteries to create a 44 kWh energy storage system

In July of this year, the Australian Ministry of Environment released a report showing that the climate crisis is already affecting the country in several ways, from heat waves at sea, which are causing coral bleaching, to extreme weather events, including increasingly intense forest fires.

In the couple's process, about 800 notebook batteries were reused for the development of a 44 kWh homemade solar energy storage component, which guarantees the energy generated on the roof when necessary, for example, on cloudy days or during the night. 

According to Crawford, this was not the easiest way to do this, however it was the cheapest. Proud, he compares his system to the equivalent of three Powerwalls, that is, the famous lithium-ion energy storage batteries produced by the great brand of Tesla electric cars.

Couple uses electric car and gets rid of combustion engines

In addition to the use of solar energy and notebook batteries, another major change made by the couple was the exchange of the traditional car for a fully electric car. According to the couple, carbon emissions in 2019 were around 10 tonnes, with three-quarters of that generated from long journeys in the car.

The change was remarkable and in 2020, it managed to reduce emissions to 4,78 tonnes total and vehicle emissions to 1,8 tonnes. Already this year, the numbers dropped by half, going to 2,26 total tons and only 0,85 tons of emissions from the vehicle.

In an interview, the couple also states that they only use electrical appliances, do not consume beef, dairy products, lamb meat and also do not travel by plane. Camille Encourages everyone who wants to reduce their emissions to do everything they can and understands that this limit varies for each reality.