Common Light · Prototype 1 of 3

Node Planner

Size the power, storage, and compute for a community resilience & knowledge node in a 20 ft container — and see an honest capex range built from verified 2025–26 component prices. Pick a scenario, adjust the loads, and every number below recomputes.

Inputs

Drives device-charging bays (1 bay of 8 × 12 W devices per 25 people).
Days the battery alone must carry the full daily load.
Loads
Component pricing basis
Sets PV module $/W and Starlink pricing; other items adjust for shipping.
PV array
Battery (LiFePO4)
Hybrid inverter
Compute tier

Estimated hardware capex

Itemized range · excludes land, permitting, staffing, and month-37 operations

Daily load vs. solar generation

Load PV output

What stays on during a 5-day outage

Assumes 50% of normal solar yield during the outage (storm sky), 80% usable battery depth, loads kept in the priority order shown. Reduced = shorter daily hours; shed = switched off to protect higher priorities.

Sources — the numbers behind this tool

  1. PV modules $0.08–0.10/W FOB China (TOPCon) — pv-magazine, Mar 2025 (pv-magazine.com); $0.26–0.28/W US DDP, tariffed — pv-magazine USA, Mar 2025 (pv-magazine-usa.com).
  2. LiFePO4 storage, branded retail: $450–600/kWh usable — HBOWA/pretapower 2025 (pretapower.com). 48 V server-rack class (EG4 etc.) is materially cheaper, vendor-direct.
  3. Hybrid all-in-one inverter, 8–12 kW class: EG4 runs ~20–30% below Sol-Ark/Victron; integrated MPPT saves $700–2,000 in components (solartechonline.com, Signature Solar). Unit price used here is an estimate.
  4. Starlink: Nigeria hardware ~$407, ~$39/mo (TechCabal); Kenya hardware ~$386, ~$51/mo, Lite ~$31/mo (Kenyan Wallstreet, Rest of World); US Roam $50/mo 50 GB or $165/mo unlimited (Mobile Internet Resource Center).
  5. Edge compute power: Jetson Orin Nano 8–12 W typical (25–28 W peak); Orin NX 14–20 W; AGX Orin 40–60 W typical, 75 W peak (edgeaistack.ai, NVIDIA). RTX-workstation-class node ~300–600 W sustained — general spec knowledge, unverified.
  6. Price anchors: Africa GreenTec Solartainer ~€150,000 for a ~50 kWp village unit (deutschland.de); BoxPower ~16 kW containerized microgrid $80–90k installed (HOMER Microgrid News).
  7. Long Island ≈ 4.0 peak sun-hours/day (annual average; winter lower); East Africa ≈ 5.5 — preset values, typical solar-resource figures, site-specific study required.
  8. Items marked est. (BOS, container fit-out, shipping/install, inverter unit price, compute hardware, load wattages) are demonstration estimates, not dossier-verified prices.

Prototype — demonstration estimates for discussion, not engineering design. Built in response to Magnifica Humanitas ¶67.