OST

EAR · Energy Autonomy Ratio

Energy

From diesel barges to local light.

The Problem

Yakutat runs on 100% diesel, barged 1,100 miles from Anacortes. Electricity costs ~$0.55/kWh (roughly 4× the U.S. average). Approximately $2M/yr leaves a town of ~600 for fuel alone. EAR ≈ 0.

The Open-Source Solution Set

OpenEMS

Released

Open Source Energy Management System — microgrid, storage, EV, heat-pump orchestration

License: EPL-2.0

View

Solar PV + LiFePO₄ Storage

Released

Proven solar photovoltaic panels with lithium iron phosphate battery storage

Open BMS

Prototype

Open-source battery management system for community-scale storage

OSE Power Cube

Prototype

Open Source Ecology's modular power unit for distributed generation

Gulf of Alaska Wave Energy

Blueprint

Wave energy potential for coastal generation

Biomass (Yakutat Forelands)

Blueprint

Forestry biomass for heat and power cogeneration

First Pilot (OST 1.0)

One solar+storage microgrid on a town hub under OpenEMS, displacing diesel on a single feeder. Instrument the diesel offset live on the town dashboard.

Inputs

Solar irradiance, capital investment, installation labor

Outputs

kWh of local clean energy, diesel displacement, cost savings

Maintenance

Panel cleaning, battery monitoring, inverter upkeep, seasonal adjustments

Risks

Winter solar low (Yakutat: high latitude, cloudy), battery cold-derating, wave technology unproven at scale

The Metric

EAR = E_local / E_demand

Drives D_energy toward 0, lifting Pₑ. Every kWh generated locally displaces imported diesel and keeps dollars circulating at home.

Inner Body Coherence Improved

Physical Body (Resource Security / LRA) — direct energy access. Economic Body (DFR) — stops the $2M annual bleed.

Deployment at Scale (1,500)

Feeder-by-feeder diesel displacement plan sized for a 1,500-person community. Seasonal solar modeling with storage oversizing for winter. Wave and biomass feasibility studies with all claims flagged.

Openness Gap

PV cells, lithium battery chemistry, and inverter silicon are not open-source. Tracked in the Openness Gap Register with mitigations: board-agnostic designs, alternative chemistries (sodium-ion) on the roadmap.

Claims Requiring Validation

  • ⚑ Wave energy yields for Gulf of Alaska require independent technical validation
  • ⚑ Biomass cogeneration capacity for Yakutat Forelands is unverified
  • ⚑ OSE Power Cube is prototype-stage, not field-proven at community scale