Solar Protocol Network Routes Web Traffic to Sunlit Servers

Solar Protocol is a distributed network of solar-powered servers that routes website traffic to whichever node is currently in the most sunshine. Founded in 2021 by Tega Brain, Alex Nathanson, and Benedetta Piantella, the project uses photovoltaic modules, charge controllers, and lead-acid batteries to host websites including its own and those of volunteer 'server stewards.' The network spans servers in Los Angeles (USA), Nairobi (Kenya), Santiago (Chile), Beijing (China), and Alice Springs (Australia), among others. When visiting solarprotocol.net, users see real-time data from the active server, such as battery level, temperature, and weather. The project is sustained by an international community of individuals, art spaces, community organizations, and universities who source parts locally. Solar Protocol is both a functioning web platform and an artistic provocation that questions conventional notions of computing efficiency, proposing instead a model aligned with natural solar cycles. The team published a paper titled 'Solar Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design' and has participated in exhibitions like 'Sun Thinking' (2023), which featured works such as Kristin Lucas and Joe McKay's 'Peckish.' The project aims to create a 'virtual artist-run space' powered by renewable energy, inviting artists, researchers, and the public to rethink technology's relationship with the planet.