by veg-head on March 13, 2010 · 1 comment

in COMMUNITY

Support from Reihan Salam

Time Magazine has called living off the grid “one of the most important ideas of the next ten years.”

Time  Managing Editor Richard Stengel, says of the article “this isn’t a matter of just scaling back but also of reconceiving how we live. “   Reihan Salam writes about how in the 2010s, more and more people will live off the grid, working in a new underground economy that will fill in the gaps of the old one. In a separate article in the special issue,  Christopher Hayes writes passionately that “it’s not just the market that has changed. The entire edifice of trust in authority that supported American life has been shaken.

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Time to buy an island

March 6, 2010
Time to buy an island The Greek government is being urged to sell its uninhabited islands to bail itself out of bankruptcy, and the UK is likely to find itself in the same position in the near future.  What better time to explore the possibility of buying an island together with a group of friends, and setting up an off-grid community there with your own laws, government and even currency? Interested parties should advertise themselves on LandBuddy, indicating roughly where they want to go on the Google Map that is part of the free service.

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V2G will sustain microgrid

February 20, 2010
V2G will sustain microgrid Micro-grids could operate reliably without the need for a national grid backup if they tapped the vast amounts of power stored in the batteries of electric and hybrid vehicles, to balance out fluctuations in supply and demand. Vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, technology, which will enable electric car owners to make money while storing power for their local micro-grid, was unveiled at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The first experimental V2G system went live last year at the University of Delaware, the Christian Science Monitor reported. At Delaware,  electric cars are connected to the grid whenever they are not being driven.

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Bloom energy box enables off-grid living

February 24, 2010
Bloom energy box enables off-grid living More details of the Bloom Box have been revealed at a carefully managed press conference in California.  The much-hyped off-grid source of cheap electricity  will not lead us all to disconnect from the grid tomorrow, but it is undoubtedly disruptive technology, and very exciting for the off-grid community. The firm's executives and backers do think that many people in future may choose to install the small box in their home and use it to generate electricity from such fuels as methane and ethanol or even solar, rather than buying it from expensive, wasteful centralised producers.  It is a game-changer.

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Waitrose to open first ‘off grid’ store

March 17, 2010
Waitrose to open first ‘off grid’ store One of the UK’s most successful retailers ,The John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis department stores, is to open its first ‘off grid’ (his words) retail store, this year. It will be located in Norfolk. Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership Charlie Mayfield, said in private talks at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in London today The store will be large --  between 15,000 and 20,000 sq ft. and powered by a mix of technologies, including combined heat and power. Mayfield said the new off grid store would deliver carbon savings of 60 per cent compared to one opened “two or three years ago”.

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Beware of 1BOG

March 16, 2010
Beware of 1BOGThe company recently raised $5m, a step forward  in its aim to become a major corporate player in the solar panel  market.  But this tiny start up is making some inflated claims. 1BOG sounds to British ears like a good name for a toilet.

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Better Off

March 16, 2010
Better Off If you cannot wait until Earth Hour on 27 March to switch off power in your house, try making this weekend your  Power Off Weekend.  That is what a group in the UK are doing.  The Power Off movement  chooses random weekends to switch off all power (yes, including the freezer), and play games by candlelight. “Power Off is all about having time to have fun, play games, talk to people, have friends and neighbours round, spend time with your children,” says Malcolm, who has started the Touchwood project in the Orkneys to popularise the idea.  Of course if you turn off the power in the Orkneys at night, then it gets really dark, unlike London. But the freezer wont melt in a single weekend because its normally too cold.

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Off-grid real estate, Phoenix

March 12, 2010
Off-grid real estate, PhoenixOn March 13, 2010, bidders will have a rare chance to acquire Vulture Ranch, a sprawling 80 acre compound, and "an absolute jewel among Arizona real estate" locals claim. Opening bid is only $250,000. Just 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, Vulture Ranch is a self-contained, off the grid Arizona real estate complex on the Sonoron Desert. It's highlight is a nearly 5,000 square foot 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom main house and features four guest suites and two cottages. Vulture Ranch has a large reception hall, opening onto a perfectly landscaped courtyard. It's a rare find on the real estate auction market.

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Story of stuff

March 8, 2010
Story of stuff I received a mail from Annie Leonard, author of  The Story of Stuff, requesting help in getting the word out. I am happy to do so, because one of the key themes of the Off-Grid web site is that we are all sick of over-consumption. So Annie is One of Us. Here is her letter: "My new book, The Story of Stuff, goes on sale today in bookstores all around the country. In fact, I'm in New York as I write this preparing for my appearance tonight on The Colbert Report! I hope you tune in. Before I make a pitch to buy, full title The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change,  I want to tell you a bit about what inspired it.

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Building the off-grid revolution

March 6, 2010
Building the off-grid revolution THE BEST GREEN BUILDING MATERIALS  FOR UK 2010 - LISTED BELOW Not being an especially practical person, the prospect of spending the day at a building materials exhibition normally holds all the allure of, well, watching paint dry. But far from being a dreary convention for construction workers’ accessories, the UK Ecobuild exhibition at London’s Earls Court was more like a gathering of impassioned revolutionaries conspiring to aid and abet off-grid living. The environmental message has finally got through to the UK building industry -with a vengeance. “I’m here because Ecobuild is now easily the most important trade forum for the UK building industry,” said one senior local authority architect.

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Off the Grid and the prepared

March 5, 2010
Off the Grid and the prepared So, just what does that mean? I can tell you from personal experience and from the responses I have received from people over the years that it definitely has different meanings to different people. From living completely without any utilities, no electricity, water or gas (think hunter's cabin, wood stove, candles or kerosene lamps, no running water...), to generating one or more of these items on site yourself (think solar panels, wind power, methane digester...), I even had one person say that for him, living "off the grid" meant living so remotely that the government couldn't find you, essentially hiding from the world. For some people it brings up a picture of a hermit living in a shack on a remote location, others envision a state of the art home that independently takes care of the needs of all occupants from food and water to electricity.

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