What We Do
We are an internationally recognized educational non-profit organization bringing clean, free fuel and nutrient dense fertilizer to people around the world. We deliver biogas systems to suburban and urban gardeners everywhere, to farmers in the U.S., and to remote villages and refugee camps around the world. Our mission and educational program is based on the work and vision of Dr. Thomas H. Culhane.
10 cu. meter Solar CITIES Puxin concrete biodigester, installed on a farm in Al Najaf, Iraq in 2014. The project was led by Taha Majeed of the Ministry of Science and Technology IRAQ / Renewable Energy Directorate.
Past Projects and Workshops
Biodigesters at Lake Tanganyika
March 4, 2010 In 2010 on a Blackstone Ranch Foundation/National Geographic Innovation Challenge Grant, Solar CITIES Egypt Director Hanna Fathy, from the Zabaleen Trash Recycler's Community, and Dr. T.H. Culhane, co-founder of Solar CITIES e.V. travelled through Kenya,...
Commercial Biogas System at Harborside Pizza
January 16, 2010 When local pizza restaurant owner Brian Wildrick and his team Todd Blaisdale and Stan learned from us and the high school students about the technology for turning their kitchen garbage into fertilizer for their fresh tomatoes and fuel to heat the...
Small-Scale Biogas in Colder Climates
January 16, 2010 At the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, the Culhanes joined Dr. Katey Walter Anthony and her husband Peter Anthony and high school science teacher Adam Low in Alaska. There they built an experimental biogas set up in a 40 ft. conex container in the...
Our 20th Biodigester Build
January 16, 2010 A modified Solar CITIES digester using HDPE reactor with solar heat exchanger as reactor and 55 gallon drum telescoping gas collectors. Starter material is elephant dung and manure from 27 other species of animal from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle...
Palestinian Wildlife Society
January 15, 2010 The aim of this project is to use the Biogas in our Arial Home Initiative, and to use this model as an educational model for the Palestinian Communities to encourage them to use this system. Incorporation with Wildlife Society Palestine and the US...
Renewable Energy in the Latino Community
January 5, 2010 Alvaro is the poster-boy for the success of the green-collar immigrant job training concept. As a graduate of Trade Tech College's renewable energy program and of T.H. Culhane's early "Eutopia" Class at Jefferson High School in the 1990s where he...
Building Biodigesters in Alaska
December 5, 2009 In late 2009, after developing our Solar CITIES IBC-based biogas system in Cairo, Egypt in anticipation for building in cold climates, we went to Alaska to experiment with psychrophilic microbial biodigesters in IBC tanks. Read more about the project...
Experiments with IBCs at Sekem Farm
May 12, 2009 At the Sekem Farm and Science School outside of Cairo, Egypt Thomas Culhane, Hanna Fathy and Solar CITIES intern Mike Rimoin deployed their invention of the open-source solar heated three IBC Solar CITIES biodigester. This is perhaps the first use of...
SolarCITIES Cold Climate Digester
May 5, 2009 This system is built from three identical IDB tote HDPE tanks. To the rear, one can just make out the biodigester itself. The top of the digester is connected by 1/2 inch clear plastic tubing to the top-side of the water displacement tank (WDT) . Water...
ARTI-Style Digesters in Cairo, Egypt
March 7, 2009 This is where it all began for us, building ARTI-style digesters in the impoverished areas of Darb Al Ahmar and Manshiyet Nasser in Cairo, Egypt in early 2009.
Our Humble Beginnings in Essen, Germany
January 30, 2009 Home scale biogas at home. This is where it all began for Solar CITIES co-founder T.H. Culhane when he built his own household biodigester on the family porch in Essen after returning from his first visit to India in January of 2009 where he learned...
Where We Work
Check out the map below to see where Solar CITIES has implemented biogas education programs – and biodigesters – through “hands-on” workshops. Some of these locations have two or more biodigesters in place, as part of our mission is to have two biogas education “hubs” in each location in order to build continued community learning support.
If you’re interested in working with us to bring biogas to your community, we invite you to get in touch with us directly. We have detailed reports about all of our projects. We would be delighted to share our information with serious enquires about partnership. Please contact us directly to share your thoughts on how we can be of assistance to you.