Join The COOP
The key decision is to go DIY or to align with the Agri POD development and sign up as a POD Pioneer and member of our POD Net team globally. You will then be one of several co-creative teams who are working individually and collectively to establish the optimum Open Source specifications and conceptual design of the Agri POD. The commercial use of the Agri POD is open to everyone, everywhere who become members of the POD Net COOP. As a members, you are the POD Pioneers and you are the owners of the COOP with a strong community of developers and POD Growers, who collaborate and cooperate to build a better world for all.
The Agri POD that we are all focused on is a consensus of our best design for Vertical Farming. It is a tall tunnel with a cross-section based on an equilateral A-frame structure with 60 degrees of arc forming the arches of the tunnel. This is optically a superior shape for the amplification of sunlight at low sunlight periods and for the distribution & diffusion of light deeply into the Agri POD when the sun has maximum overhead strength.
The interior of the Agri POD is a practical "post and beam" grid of columns and floor girder beams (that support floor joists) on a practical grid of 10' (3M), which provides access to the cubic 3D volume of space that we create on three floor levels - including the ground floor.
The agriPOD is in the final stages of freezing the design and we have a interior, ground floor dimension of approximately 12 M (width) by 27 M (length) that provides 800 M2 of growing area with 3 M of hight for each floor area except at the roof level which has a peak of 4.5 M. All the prefabricated components, including structure, outside fabric cover and inside film skin (that form the Sola Roof) and the Sola Roof Tech mechanical systems for solar capture and thermal storage, environmental control of temperature and humidity, and closed atmosphere, ecological environment systems are affordable within a $120,000 budget that is open-book and is provided with a "lowest cost" of supply commitment to our first wave of POD Pioneers. The Sola Roof supply includes all the Liquid Bubble Insulation & Shading and Liquid Solar processes with related equipment and controls. Subsequently, the POD Net COOP will determine the commercial supply pricing to the POD Pioneers, as registered members of the global POD Net family.
The breakdown on this current cost estimate of $200,000 (at a stage before we have mass production advantage) is:
- POD Net COOP Membership $10,000
- Structure: $40,000
- Aluminum envelope $20,000
- Translucent Fabric Cover: $20,000
- Sola Roof Tech: $20,000
- Controls: $10,000
- Technical support: $10,000
- Controls, Tech & Cloud $10,000
- Construction $60,000
- Growing Systems ~ variable
- Total $200,000 + variable
This is the estimated cost Agri POD structure complete and ready for installation. We continue to grind away on the details to optimize for highest value for money from selected supply chain. As volume of units of Agri POD grows we have opportunity to get better supply bids that meet our Open Source specifications. The suppliers that will come together to support the launch of POD Works enterprise as our first authorized Sola Roof suppliers are launching with a world class supply chain and we continue to see an interest by all corporations, who may wish to supply components of the Agri POD, to become sponsors to POD Pioneers.
The POD Pioneer proposal is not a bid to "sell you something" but rather that you select our team to work with you as part of your team. The outcome is a solution for all the POD Pioneers to replicate, across America and round the world. Please do not see us as "on the other side of the table" but as an extended team of support for the success of your project to go far beyond what would be any reasonable expectation and to show the super, exceptional results for localization of food that is essential for health, life and freedom of all Americans.
What I hope for in response is an invitation to talk this idea for a relationship through to make it into a working collaboration, where we are mutually committed to go down this road together, including "working openly" with the Sola Roof technology to create the Agri POD platform.
Regards, Richard