Overview

Solarpunk isn't a mood board — it's hands-on, hopeful resilience. This build day teaches you to stand up real, community-owned infrastructure that keeps working when the grid, the cloud, and the corporations don't. You'll turn an old phone into a proper Linux server with postmarketOS, put up a Meshtastic mesh that talks device-to-device over LoRa radio (no SIM, no ISP, no tower to shut off), and host a local info hub — offline maps, emergency dispatch, skill-sharing, and mutual-aid boards that work with the internet down. Build a solar-powered field node sized to run on sun and a battery, and leave with a resilience blueprint that scales from a garden to a neighborhood to a commune. Appropriate tech you own, in service of people and planet.

Who this is for & what you'll need

🟡 Guided codingYou'll run commands and edit files. No prior experience needed.

🔧 Physical partsThis class uses hardware you'll bring or build.

🔧 What to bringOptional hardware (~$25-100+): Meshtastic radio / ESP32 + LoRa, small solar panel (2-20W), LiPo battery + charge controller, IP65 enclosure; or flash an old phone with postmarketOS. Loaners/observing welcome.

Where This Class Leads

What you leave able to do

classify your channels by what removes them
generalise a node build into your communitys system
parameterise a service so it is reachable by name
measure what a community loses when a channel goes down
verify a community system survives a cut you did not choose
design a community information system that survives losing the internet
reconcile community ownership with somebody having to maintain it

How you show it. Infrastructure still running after the person who built it stopped, a written maintenance agreement, and one handover that actually happened.

It sits on 2 paths