Paleo-Energy

04/29/2026

🌱✨ INNOVATION x ECOLOGY in Pondicherry & Auroville ✨🌱

Atelier 21 is currently in India for a series of talks and workshops led by Cédric Carles — exploring how art, science, and the history of innovation can help shape more resilient futures.

Over the coming days, we are engaging with vibrant local ecosystems through:

🎤 Conferences – "Combining arts & sciences to advance the ecological transition"
🛠️ Workshops – "Rethinking the future through the history of innovation"

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📍 Pondicherry

📅 April 30 — 3:30 PM (English)
🎤 Conference
📍 Institut Français de Pondichéry

📅 May 1 — 7:00 PM (French)
🛠️ Workshop
📍 Alliance Française de Pondichéry

In collaboration with the Institut Français de Pondichéry and the Alliance Française de Pondichéry

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📍 Auroville

📅 May 2 — 10:30 AM (French)
🛠️ Workshop
📍 Pavillon de France

📅 May 2 — 5:30 PM (English)
🎤 Conference
📍 Visitor Center Auditorium

With the Pavillon de France, Auroville

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These moments are part of a broader international journey connecting research, design, and collective intelligence — rooted in Atelier 21’s approach to low-tech, retrofutur thinking, and energy transitions.

From rediscovering forgotten inventions to imagining new pathways for sustainability, each encounter is an opportunity to bridge past knowledge with present challenges.

💡 Workshops have limited seats — early registration recommended
🎟️ Conferences are open to all

Looking forward to meeting thinkers, makers, students, and curious minds along the way.

05/03/2025

A great lesson from Peter for the big Energy storage companies …

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16T6wD1a5k/?mibextid=wwXIfr

07/18/2024

Le Rétrofutur Museum est un Musée-Théâtre sur histoire des énergies renouvelables, ouverture à Paris en septembre 2024

03/14/2024

🌟 Discovery and innovation at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés - UMSA in Bolivia!

We are proud to present Paléo-Energétique , an exciting initiative that studies ancient energy technologies to find keys for our sustainable future. Join us to explore how practices from the past can inspire retrotech energy solutions.

We will also introduce the RegenBox, a new generation of regenerative and eco-designed alkaline battery charger. A step forward towards energy autonomy and waste reduction.

And don’t miss the live demonstration of energy efficiency with the Lapaz.solarsoundsystem - a musical experience powered solely by solar energy ! A compelling example of the power and potential of renewable energy.

🗓️ Join our conference on Paleo-Energetique:
Thursday, March 14 at 3:00 PM, Faculty of Technology.

🗓️ Witness the performance of the Solar Sound System:
Saturday, March 16 at 12:30 PM, atrium of Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.

Come and immerse yourself in the history of energy and its potential for tomorrow!

Schneider Electric Foundation INSTITUT FRANÇAIS Embajada de Francia en Bolivia

02/11/2024

11th February is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

“Science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Yet women and girls continue to be excluded from participating fully in science."
( United Nations website )

For several years now, our team Paleo-energy has been conducting research and work on energy innovations through the ages. The stated aim of this collaborative and international research is to seek out the innovations of the past in order to prepare the solutions of tomorrow. Because we are convinced that the good or even the best ideas already exist and have been forgotten.

First, the result of more than four years of research, was the publication of a book by Buchet Chastel Libella , published in September 2018. It has now been translated into Japanese and English ( you can order it here https://paleo-energetique.org/retrotech-and-lowtech/ ).
Then, our work is now leading them to the forthcoming opening of a small energy museum : the RETROFUTUR MUSEUM in Paris.

But our assessment is horrifying and irrevocable. Of the nearly 400 innovations already discovered, not much attributed to a woman. We know that this is impossible. We're looking for more research in this direction to balance our work. We are therefore actively looking for inventions and processes of the past, implemented by women inventors, scientists, researchers, passionate about the energy sector. This would enable us to highlight the work of these women, who are still invisible but inevitably numerous.

You can reach out to us by email: [email protected] or via our social networks ( on instagram, LinkedIn, X ex Twitter).

We don’t know whether you will be able to disseminate our appeal to your contacts who are particularly interested in scientific culture or environmental and energy issues. Or perhaps you can already inform us about some exceptional women who may have escaped our vigilance... That would be great!

See you soon and thank you in advance,
The PaleoEnergy team

European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS

01/03/2024

🛋 Do you recognise it?

Kotatsu is an ancient and very practical solution for saving money in winter and heating at a lower cost. This table hides a heat source fuelled by charcoal and covered by a blanket.

♨️ This system heats and retains heat in a small insulated space. The principle is not to heat up the whole room, which consumes more energy and is harder to achieve, but to create a cocoon of warmth.

🔥 It's an ancient invention, dating back to the Muromachi era in the 14th century. At that time the kotatsu was called irori and referred to a coal-fired fireplace used mainly to heat the kitchen.

🔌 The kotatsu evolved with the use of electricity, and this fireplace sometime within the floor was modernised. Now, an electric radiator is built in under the wooden table, making the kotatsu portable. This Japanese practice has not yet been fully exported, but it is an easy DIY way of fighting energy poverty!

12/27/2023

🔆 Can you guess what this structure is used for?

Answer 👇

It's a solar chimney!

The first patent for this type of structure dates back to 1897 by a certain Alfred Rosling Bennett. It wasn't until 1903 that a solar tower model was proposed by a Spanish military officer, Colonel Isidoro Cabanyes, in the magazine La Energía eléctrica.

💨 It worked as follows: the ambient air at the base of the structure was stored in a flat collector, where the air was heated by sunlight. Between the collector and the chimney, turbines are driven by the hot air escaping from the chimney.

🌡This tower benefits from convection energy due to the temperature difference, and the movement of the turbines charges electrical generators which then produce electricity.

12/22/2023

🇬🇧 You still have time to treat yourself with “Retrotech and Lowtech How patents forgotten patents can shake the future”.

🎁 Our french version is out of stock but we still do have some left in our english version, offer it to your beloved ones who are enthousiastic about lowtech !

💡 You will discover up to 64 forgotten innovation. Our research based on archives and interviews helped us find objects and uses that can still be relevant and practical in our time to face new challenges from Global warming.

👉 It is available on our website and you can order it through your favorite booshop :
https://paleo-energetique.org/retrotech-and-lowtech/

05/31/2023

🇬🇧 We are proud to announce that our Paleo-Energy project, which focuses on exploring alternative energy sources inspired by Technical Heritage, has received an Honorary Mention from the European Union Prize for Citizen Science by Ars Electronica, Impetus4cs and the European Commission.
Thank you all for your support and participation!
A huge thanks to Schneider Electric Foundation for the support !
Learn more: https://urlz.fr/m4fw

Paleo-energy: How forgotten patents can shake the future from France focuses on exploring alternative energy sources inspired by Technical Heritage.

04/05/2023

Aerocene solar balloon lauchning
Follow the direct live on Aerocene instagrm : https://www.instagram.com/aerocene/?hl=fr
With SolarSoundSystem and Atelier 21 as Aerocene Community France we are participating in the global Aerocene initiative led by Studio Tomás Saraceno , and are inviting people to join them for the launch of an Aerocene flight near Paris via live stream. This historic event is a low-carbon human flight that aims to raise awareness for eco-social justice and write a new chapter in history, free from fossil fuels. The flight will be led by pilot Lea Zeberli and will carry the message "Water and life are worth more than lithium."