Energy

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Homesteading-book review

Homesteading, it’s a buzzword that means different things to different people, back in the day, it meant getting land for free as long as you lived on it and improved it for x number of years. It was a way to get people to move west (in the USA), back when travel was slow and painful, even dangerous.…

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Community

Going fridgless

Going fridgless, to most people would be paramount to going topless, many people couldn’t imagine living their lives without having a 19+/- cubic foot energy eating, leftover storing, inefficient cold box sitting in their kitchen. Now days refrigerators do so much, in my old life, I worked for a big box electronics store, the one with the blue shirts and the little yellow price tag, they were starting to put computers in the door, not just electronics, but a real computer screen that could access the internet and help you with your shopping and let you watch TV on your fridge.…

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Energy

Solar Energy on Dragons Den

The  BBC’s top-rated TV show Dragons’ Den gave a cautious thumbs-up to Solar in the first show of its new series.  But the valuation they placed on the solar panel company in question was disappointing.
Chris Hopkins, owner of Ploughcroft Solar gave his sales speech to convince the panel as to the benefits ofsolar energy, and the financial rewards that can be reaped from the Government’s feed-in-tariff (Fit) scheme.Seeking £100,000 for a 10% equity share in his company, the entrepreneur received offers from all but one of the Dragons. But the eventual deal was so low as to be almost derisory. (See the pitch here)

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Energy

Satcon Inverters accused of fraud

The bottom is dropping out of the market for large-scale inverters as government subsidies for renewable energy are lowered worldwide.

America’s largest inverter company, Satcon is running into financial problems, and is being sued by shareholders alleging fraudulent mis-statements. Its shares are at a 3-year low.

Known to some angry shareholders as FatCon, Satcon’s problems are evidence that, despite their warm words, Venture Capitalists and Utility companies are not embracing renewable energy unless they are paid to do so through government subsidies.…

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Community

Solar powered clothes dryer

It’s funny how your perspectives change as you grow. When I was a kid, I used to be embarrassed because my mom hung our laundry out on the line to dry. I hated the smell of line dried clothes, sheets and towels, to me that meant we were poor, we couldn’t afford a dryer. All of my classmates had soft, fabric softener fresh smelling clothes, our clothes, towels and sheets were stiffer and to me were just second rate.

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Energy

Alberta power cos in “death spiral”

A vast bill for new electricity infrastructure will be paid for by Alberta consumers because industry will simply generate its own electricity rather than have its profits gouged by the power companies.

Two associations that represent big industrial power users are warning that escalating transmission costs will push pulp mills and petrochemical refineries off the electrical grid, and leave residential and commercial consumers stuck with a larger portion of the bill.
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