BOOKS: The off-grid community and the battle to live their way.
Off The Grid in America (Penguin, 2010)
How to Live Off-Grid UK (Bantam, 2008)
The summer solstice on June 21 marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Summer of Love. Mid-1967, the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco was teeming with close to 100,000 marijuana-smoking, acid-dropping, flower powerful baby boomers. Did you miss out on the ’60s? You could buy a piece of it at
Not long ago, we brought you a story on how to get a telephone line to your off-grid palace in multiple ways (Ssstay connected). Now a California company has introduced a product that will help you get internet access, and through it the possibility of an IP-phone, powered by solar power!
What the Meraki network has put together is new, but the individual bits that make it up are not. The solar powered wifi box sells for around 100 dollars but it is also something your could do yourself with some of the products in our online store and a visit to your computer hardware store. (more…)
Eco-holidays are all the rage, but how eco are they when the offer mains power and water, and all the other luxuries of modern life? Here are four genuinely off-grid vacation opportunities, though whether they are really weekend getaways depends on where you are travelling from.
Martin Foster, a farmer, has an off-grid holiday cottage by the banks of Loch Sween in Argyll. The cooker runs off bottled gas while the lights are powered by a small
Bruce Willis went on the Letterman show last night wearing a giant wind-turbine hat and announced he was “completely off-grid, in fact I can’t even see the grid anymore.” Way to go Brucie. (more…)
Using a very old idea – the cooling power of the evaporation of water – a small Indian group has released plans for a very inexpensive but effective way to keep food cool and fresh – refrigeration without any power source whatsoever!
The bamboo iceless refrigerator is a low cost device that can be used to store food items. It preserves the food longer, and keeps it cool. This fridge can be used to store vegetables, fruits or even keep your beers cold. Detailed instructions at the end of this article (more…)
In an attempt to break the high initial cost of solar power for remote regions, an MIT team has developed a small – 1kW – solar concentrating combined heat and power system. It uses the concentrated heat in an Organic rakine cycle, in which a liquid with a low boiling temperature is reused over and over – to turn a turbine salvaged from an old car.
After several years of experimenting in the labs in Masachussetts, this young group finally managed to get some funding from the World Bank, and has been working in Lesotho, South Africa to put a working practical model on the ground. (more…)
Michael Franti & Spearhead, is topping the bill tonight at the final day of the 9th Taos Solar Music Fest. Get down there if you are in the area. Franti blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock. He is also an outspoken supporter for a wide spectrum of peace and social justice issues.
The other big names at the three day event were Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and Los Lobos. (more…)
France’s first residential Earthship has received planning permission. There are already two UK Earthships (houses built to the specification of Earthship guru Mike Reynolds) but these are eco-showcases in Brighton and Fife – not for living in, and there is another in Valencia, Spain.
Having failed to get planning permssion in the UK, a couple from Brighton decided to build the totally sustainable home in the small French village of Ger in Normandy. Kevan Trott and his wife Gillian are now hard at work on the structure (pictured). (more…)
New Lives in the Wild – TV series
Daryl Hannah tells Abu Dhabi about going off the
Last American Man gets eviction order threat
Shaun Majumder goes off-grid for new TV series
Bear Grylls Welsh island
