Self sufficient seastead
There are people who would like to have a self sufficient seastead. A Single Family Seastead with a few extras should be able to serve this part of the seastead market. This is somewhat related to the Survivalist market.
The self sufficiency views are similar to off-the-grid, sustainable, sustainable living, and Autarky. If you can take care of all your own needs, then other people's problems don't cause you problems. So people may be (and feel) more secure if they are self sufficient.
Power
Solar panels can provide power for 25+ years. Costs are now down to around $2/watt. Solar takes a fair amount of area and probably too much area to support all the people on a Floating City Seastead given the size but should be fine on a lower population density Single Family Seastead.
Propulsion
Solar would be enough power for electric thrusters if we use efficient propellers. Might also use a kite and sea-anchor. You can get a 500 lbs thruster that uses about 2,000 watts. If you only drove when the sun was up and used $2/watt panels, that is about $4,000 worth of solar panels. Probably you want batteries and several times that in solar panels.
Food
A self sufficient seastead could have several strategies for food:
- Fishing - A seastead should act as a Fish Aggregating Device so it will probably be easy to catch plenty of fish for one family.
- Sprouting - In a few days seeds can be turned into sprouts which have extra vitamins and are much easier to digest.
- Hydroponics - A supply of hydroponics nutrients to last many years is not very large (most of the mass of food comes from water and the carbon in the air).
- Food storage - Food storage food is also very reasonably priced and small enough to fit on a seastead.
- Aquaculture - There is plenty of room for a fish cage below a seastead. May be able to just string a net between the edges of the seastead with weights to hold the bottom down.
Water
Commercial watermakers are available at places like westmarine.com. These can produce plenty of water. Collecting rainwater might be possible but it takes a large storage tank which could be a problem.
Market size
It is not clear large this market is, but even a small market segment could help with initial sales of seasteads.
Conclusions
A seastead can be a great platform for a self sufficient life.
