Resumen de Open Source and Living Systems
The dissertation investigates the approach of open source hardware and its potential for a “post-growth” transformation of society, which, from an environmentalist perspective, seems necessary. Hereby it elaborates the paradigm shift attached to the idea of open source, compares them with living systems in nature and practically contributes to the open source movement in the field of rural electrification. By doing so, it compares renewable energy technologies for rural electrification from the perspective of open source applicability. The practical output hereby is the design of an open source licensed hydro power turbine, called “Pico Cross Flow”. Its simplified design is primarily meant for remote area electrification and local manufacturing in the Global South. The dissertation covers the hydraulic and mechanical design as well as the manufacturing of a prototype and the testing at the hydrodynamic laboratory of the University of Vienna.
