

Not a lot you can do with phones unfortunately. You could set them up as basic fileservers using CopyParty or Syncthing. Don’t use it for anything critical - these are not backup solutions.
Set up Tailscale to access it outside your network.
I’ve been told that government auctions canbe a good source for cheap used PCs but I never had much luck there. I suspect that they get snatched up quickly and stripped for parts. Try eBay or Mercari?
















It’s not a bad idea to have energy production near where the energy is being used.
That said, it’s not an either or.
Technology Connections actually did a great video on why using solar panels in place of crops can benefit the crops and actually provides more energy than the crops themselves. At least in the U.S., a huge portion of our crops are used for ethanol in gasoline anyway.