Posts from — October 2009

Dobreski or is it Vrcakovski?

Off-Grid.Net readers have finally helped us unmask the culprits behind the  Magniwork magnetic generator scam.

The fraudsters have been swindling gullible buyers with a $50 DIY guide to building a magnetic power generator which claims to produce free energy. Physicists and energy experts have dismissed the product as nonsense.

The brains behind the operation is a shady East European scientist and entrepreneur known as Igor Dobreski. His main accomplice and web-master is a slightly more engaging but still dishonest character called Vojdan Vrcakovski. (more…)

Click to buy There is too much information around about how to go green.  Many are left wondering who to trust and just how they can individually make a difference.

Every day we make hundreds of small choices that can influence our future and the planet’s. (more…)

FoE’s Robin Webster: “useless”Micro-generation suddenly looks a better bet in the UK after an official report painted a dismal picture of insecure energy supplies and yo-yo prices over the next decade.
In a tacit admission that the private sector and the national grid are failing to deliver energy security, the study by UK energy regulator Ofgem predicts that consumers could face price volatility with energy price spikes of up to 60 per cent within the next 7 years. (more…)

Nick: the age of the micro-grid Off-Grid expert Nick Rosen is giving a talk in Denver October 21st.

Is nuclear power a “Green” energy solution? What is the UK view? Is it a viable option for mitigating climate change? Can small nuclear energy modules provide the energy for off-grid communities – and in particular the baseload power required to make solar and wind power plants continuously productive? (more…)

Humble off-gridder capitivates US An event  last month co-hosted by  TED and Andrew Natsios in Georgetown, DC introduced  America to the amazing story of “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind,” William Kamkwamba.
William is from Malawi and he was just 14 when he built a windmill to provide his parents’ house with enough electricity to read and listen to radio. (more…)

Best advert ever for permaculture

Juno star Ellen Page recently took a break from Hollywood to study permaculture design in an eco-village near Eugene, Oregon.

Teen Hollywood reports that Page “spent a month living on the settlement and learned how to live more simply — and how valuable urine can be.” (more…)

The provision of off-grid charging services such as solar mobile phones or external solar chargers could bring mobile operators a market opportunity of $2.3 billion in emerging markets, according to research commissioned by the GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme.

Hagman: unlikely icon

It was always ironic that the actor who played oil tycoon JR in Dallas, himself  lived in an off-grid home in California.  But no longer. Larry Hagman and his wife Maj are about to list their longtime mountaintop home near LA for $11 million.

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Stirling D Allan: “This is Fraud” Internet fraudsters are raking in  thousands of dollars a day with an elaborate scam selling magnetic perpetual motion machines that are claimed to produce infinite free energy.

Since spring this year an operation called Magniwork has been selling a $50 DIY guide to building a perpetual motion device at home. On their web-site the fraudsters claim the materials are available in any local hardware store for less than $100. One estimate puts sales of the guide as high as 5,000 copies a month, making the scam worth up to $3m a year.

The claims for Magniwork are advanced via an extensive Google advertising campaign, and a network of blogs, web-sites and reviews endorsing the product. (more…)