Communities

Rolling blackouts are the reality of everyday life in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.   Russia’s war is increasingly targeting the civilian population and the country’s electricity infrastructure, in a bid analysts say seeks to break the will of the people.

Now the world has become complacent about the considerable dangers posed by the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the UN nuclear watchdog has said within the past few hours.

Moscow captured the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear site, in March last year raising fears of a nuclear disaster.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is working to set up a safe zone around the facility. Mr Grossi, speaking in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, said a nuclear accident could happen any day and reiterated the situation at the plant was very precarious.

Poweroutage.com had been tracking Ukraine’s outages, but has stopped. Ukrainian officials began classifying the data, given that it can be used by the enemy to locate vulnerabilities.

But that has not affected the US-based effort to provide power to Ukrainians.  New Use Energy and a group of nonprofits are working with medical professionals and others to keep the lights on as Russia makes Ukraine’s grid a war-target.

Paul Shmotolokha is CEO of New Use Energy Solutions, and has been working to bring microgrid equipment — largely portable solar and storage — to Ukraine since the start of the war.

In the early days of the conflict, the company, along with several nonprofit partners, provided energy equipment to the war front where the destruction of buildings and infrastructure caused localized power outages.

But Shmotolokha, tied to Ukraine through family and friends, knew that the worst was still to come. “I was sitting there the whole time saying, they’re going to go after the grid. In the 21st century, you take down the grid and you hurt society.”

Psychological and physical harm

Or as Andrian Prokip of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future said in a blog, such destruction goes beyond the physical: “Besides creating immediate economic hardship and logistical problems, attacks on the power system are a powerful way to apply psychological pressure to citizens.”

Moldova, a staging ground for humanitarian aid for Ukraine, is the latest victim of the Russian attacks on the grid that began in earnest last October with a massive missile and drone attack that heavily damaged transmission lines and caused 1.4 million Ukrainians to lose power. Off-Grid advocates point to such attacks as an example of the danger of relying on centralized energy systems with a single point of failure. They can cause power outages for miles beyond the actual point of attack.

Shmotolokha is aware of what’s happening because of his frequent communications with doctors and others in the country as he tries to get solar panels, batteries, medical headlamps and other equipment to those in need.

Everything …

Last May Josh Spodek disconnected the circuit breaker in his West Village studio, and now “his carbon footprint is about that of three average-sized house cats,” reports New Yorker magazine, following up on a story first publicised by Time magazine

Spodek is a fifty-one-year-old executive-leadership coach and environmentalist. He specializes in winning converts—C.E.O.s, oil executives, Trumpers—to sustainable life styles. Check out his blog and his podcast, where he conducts interviews and enumerates personal facts, including number of burpees performed since 2011 (two hundred and three thousand five hundred and seventy-eight) and times mugged (many).

What does it mean to live off the grid in a city? No wall outlets, no gas hookup, no taxis. Elevators are out. Running water is in, though Spodek is stingy with the faucet. You’ll need some essentials, including a handheld battery, a portable solar charger, and roof access; in the winter, it only takes six or so hours of direct sunlight to power your days.

 Spodek has coaching clients. For hedge funds and corporations, he charges fifteen thousand dollars for six months of executive training. “For other people, I say pay what you can,” he says. He has calls back to back today to discuss sustainability: a former ExxonMobil manager, a German oil executive, then Alan Iny, a partner at Boston Consulting Group. Iny reports that he’s reconsidering the wisdom of constant business travel. “Progress can be slow in the non-Josh world,” he concedes. Make sure to monitor your phone battery. “It’s at seven per cent,” Spodek says. “I think I’ll be O.K.”

Up to the roof for more charging. It’s a good spot to reflect on your new life’s rewards. “I know the patterns of the shadows,” Spodek says. “Due south is right in the middle, between the World Trade Center and the Woolworth Building.” He likes to orient the panels in that direction for more light. “The weather and the sun drive a lot of my decisions,” Spodek says. “Rain means I have to cut way back on computer use. It’s being humble to nature.”

 His fridge is no more, so Spodek keeps it simple. Every day is solar-powered-no-packaging-vegan-stew day—legumes, nuts, veggies in a pressure cooker. (Unless it rains, in which case: salad.) “Also, it turns out banana peels are edible,” Spodek says.

You might be wondering: is all the fridge-disconnecting and fermenting and composting going to make your apartment stink? Only mildly.

Joshua Spodek hosts the This Sustainable Life podcast, is the author of Initiative and Leadership Step by Step, and is an adjunct professor of leadership at New York University.…

The Vegan Land Movement in the UK provides a model for others to follow – anywhere in the world – to link up and secure bare land for working and living purposes.  The London Times covered a recent purchase of 6.8 acres of grazing fields in South-West England.  A £44,000 bid from the group of vegans, secured the plot.

Using the Landbuddy map – off-gridders can adopt the same  strategy – and form groups of like-minded people to acquire land quickly and easily.

“A lot of people think action is about standing on a street with a banner,” says Gina Bates, 60, the founder of VLM. “Obviously that plays a part but not many people are actually trying to create alternative systems.”

Veganism is growing in popularity. According to YouGov, 2 per cent of the population was vegan in 2021, rising to 3 per cent last year. Veganuary is celebrating its tenth year of campaigning with the number of people pledging a month of veganism growing year on year.

Meanwhile, vegan organisation GenV has challenged Rishi Sunak to adopt a plant-based diet for a month for a donation of £1 million to a charity of his choice and has taken over every inch of advertising space in Westminster Tube station to get its message to him. Founded in 2019 by Matthew Glover, who also established the Veganuary group, GenV has previously issued the same challenge to the Pope and to Donald Trump.

GenV doesn’t take public donations and is funded entirely by a private trust, which is supported by a number of philanthropists

A section on its website headlined “Supporters past and present” features pictures of Joanna Lumley, Paul McCartney, Bryan Adams, Joaquin Phoenix and Woody Harrelson. “In the case of this particular million pounds, this is being offered by an anonymous donor,” says GenV.

VLM comprises three core members and about 20 volunteers, and no one takes a salary. All of the four sites it owns are in Somerset, a region it has honed in on for a few reasons. “One is because it’s one of the most depleted areas in Europe for biodiversity,” Bates says. “It’s also the biggest region for dairy farms in the country, so there’s a lot more pollution per acre there than there is anywhere else in the UK.”

Bates, who used to work as a print designer for Liberty in London, but who now lives in the Highlands and has planted a “veganic” nut orchard, wanted to “think of solutions.”…

Bluetti is one of the pacemakers in the home battery market, with an online following crowdfunding some of its latest products. Over the coming weeks at Off-Grid.net and our associated Youtube channel, we will be test-driving some of its leading products and comparing them to the competition – Jackery, Anker, Allpowers and others.

The company styles itself as a pioneer in the clean energy storage industry, and is to showcase its new model EP900 and other power backup products at the upcoming CES 2023, the world’s biggest tech conference. It claimed to redefine home energy at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall #9335, Jan. 5-8, 2023.

The upgraded EP900 & B500 feature a 9kW inverter and expandable capacity that starts at 9kWh with a single B500 LFP battery and ends at 79kWh when paired with 16 batteries. The system can be integrated directly into most solar panel systems, allowing for up to 9kW max solar input. Besides its peak-load shifting mode to reduce electric bills, it also acts as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that switches instantly to battery power in 10ms after the grid power fails.The stellar combo of the year will also hit the stage. A month earlier, it raised $11 million from more than 4,000 backers on Indiegogo, another record in BLUETTI’s history.

The 16-outlet solar generator pumps out 5kW pure sine wave power and can be charged via 8kW AC+ Solar dual input. The AC500 can handle anything from home blackouts to outdoor camping when teamed with one to six B300S LFP batteries for a maximum capacity of 18,432Wh.

BLUETTI has a diverse product range that can be classified by size, usage, or design. It has a lineup of portable generators called the EB series, such as the popular 10-pound EB3A. The AC200MAX, AC200P and EP500, EP500Pro make up the best all-in-one power giant collection. Options for power stations are growing in number as BLUETTI’s R&D team continues to roll out products based on customer demand.

 …

A cluster of 3,335 satellites called the ‘Starlink Constellation’ created by SpaceX is currently offering off-grid high-bandwidth WiFi to consumers in 45 different countries. Around 1 million people have already subscribed. This is the perfect provider for any people in need of a service designed for off-grid living.
A large portion of customers happen to be from Ukraine, and it is actively aiding them with the current war.
Starlink has also provided Ukraine by helping restore power and installing ‘Starlink Terminals’ that will help them access the internet.
The satellites and internet have given Ukrainians a chance to communicate with the outside world and Russia has threatened to shoot them down as they say it is interfering with the invasion.
The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishnya says “Starlink has played a crucial role in helping Ukraine to mount its defense against the Russian invasion”
Starlink released the service in 2019, and aims for global phone service after 2023, as well as increasing their overall number of orbiting satellites.…

What could be nicer than climbing into a warm bed on a cold, damp night?

Normally that means heating the room, but you could perfectly well heat the bed for a couple of hours just before sleep, for only a few cents.

The humble Electric blanket
(click here for UK version), was a staple of middle-class homes in the 1950s and 1960s, but has since fallen out of favour as central heating was installed, and after a string of fatalities.

Modern Electric blankets
(UK version)
must pass stringent safety rules, and there is a wide range to choose from. This one in UK is only £11.50.

A battery like this onein USA and this one
in the UK, will power the blanket for up to 6 hours via the USB. The battery can be recharged the next day – this can be with a 200-watt solar panel
for the USA version – or here
in the UK.

Or plug into the mains – if you can find a live socket at a friend’s house!

Street lights can also be used as a power supply (but only when connected by a qualified electrician). And you could pay for charging at a local garage or anywhere you can find with a power supply.

Sweet Dreams – and remember to switch off the blanket before sleep, although you can switch it back on again if you wake up cold.…

Washington DC – US department of energy has trailed an announcement later today (Tuesday), from energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby to announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but this is the first time they had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes. The figures to be released later today reach a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would “derisk” investment in fusion to achieve a reliable, abundant net-zero alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.

Boosters of nuclear fusion are already claiming that this announcement puts commercial fusion production less than 10 years away. There are fears it will provide an excuse for governments and industry to put current Net-zero plans on hold. Even on the most optimistic assumptions about climate change that would be too late to stop catastrophic warming.

Physicist Daniel Jassaby, who worked at the Princeton plasma lab, said a fusion reactor would be “far from perfect and in some ways close to the opposite”.

Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists he said the process of nuclear fusion has the potential to produce radiation damage and radioactive waste – contrary to claims it is clean and safe.

He also says the “parasitic drain” of power needed to fuel fusion reactors renders means that they could “consume a good chunk of the very power that they produce”.

Fusion reactors have to be supplied with fuel made from fission reactors which he said implies a “perpetual dependence” on them.

And there is the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation through the “clandestine” production of plutonium-239.

In total there have been 21 commercial start-ups in fusion energy over the last five years, with a cascade of private funding over recent months following successes by the Livermore lab in 2021.

The Fusion Industry Association in Washington says there are currently five private companies pursuing inertial fusion of different forms, including the UK’s First Light, Focused Energy and Xcimer Energy in the US, and Marvel Fusion and XB11 in Germany.

“The advances being made point to market viability much sooner than expected, within the next 10 years,” said Todd Ditmire, co-founder of Focused Energy.

The $3.5bn National Ignition Facility at Livermore was primarily designed to test nuclear weapons by simulating explosions but has since been used to advance fusion energy research.

Achieving ignition involved collaborators at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Nevada National Security Site; General Atomics; academic institutions, including the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University; international partners, including the United Kingdom’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.…