Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?
Obsolete TechnologyFor centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?
-
How to Build a Low-tech Website?
Low-tech SolutionsOur new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.
-
-
-
We Can’t Do It Ourselves
High-tech problemsHow to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action.
-
Ditch the Batteries: Off-Grid Compressed Air Energy Storage
Low-tech SolutionsCompressed air energy storage is the sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.
-
History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy
Obsolete TechnologyHistorical compressed air systems hold the key to the design of a low-tech, low-cost, robust, sustainable and relatively energy efficient energy storage medium.
-
How Much Energy Do We Need?
Low-tech SolutionsResearchers have calculated minimum levels of energy use needed to live a decent life, but what about maximum levels?
-
Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency
High-tech ProblemsTo focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable.
-
How to Run the Economy on the Weather
Low-tech SolutionsAdjusting energy demand to supply would make switching to renewable energy much more realistic than it is today.
-
How (Not) to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power Alone
High-Tech ProblemsMatching supply to demand at all times makes renewable power production a complex, slow, expensive and unsustainable undertaking.
-
Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution
Low-tech SolutionsCould we rethink and redesign office equipment, combining the best of mechanical and digital devices?
-
How to Get Your Apartment Off the Grid
Low-tech SolutionsSolar panels on window sills and balconies can supply more power than you would think.
-
Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power?
Low-tech SolutionsDirectly coupling DC power sources with DC loads can result in a significantly cheaper and more sustainable solar system.
-
Power Water Networks
Obsolete TechnologyHydraulic power transmission is very efficient compared to electricity when it is used to operate powerful but infrequently used machines.
-
Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s
Obsolete TechnologyFrom the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.
-
Reinventing the Greenhouse
Low-tech SolutionsContrary to its fully glazed counterpart, a passive solar greenhouse is designed to retain as much warmth as possible.
-
How to Build a Low-tech Internet
Low-tech SolutionsIf we want the internet to keep working in circumstances where access to energy is more limited, we can learn important lessons from alternative network technologies.
-
Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places
Obsolete TechnologyMost modern heating systems are primarily based on the heating of air. This seems an obvious choice, but there are far worthier alternatives.
-
High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network
High-tech ProblemsHigh speed rail is destroying the most valuable alternative to the airplane; the “low speed” rail network that has been in service for decades.
-
Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
Low-tech SolutionsAbout a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.
-
How to Downsize a Transport Network: The Chinese Wheelbarrow
Obsolete TechnologyFor being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history.
-
Aerial Ropeways: Automatic Cargo Transport for a Bargain
Obsolete TechnologyCargo tramways can be fully or partly powered by gravity, and some deliver excess power that can be utilized to generate electricity or to drive cranes or machinery in nearby factories
-
Hand Powered Drilling Tools and Machines
Obsolete technologyDuring the last quarter of the 19th century, a radically improved generation of tools appeared.
-
The Sky is the Limit: Human-Powered Cranes and Lifting Devices
Obsolete TechnologyThe only advantage that fossil-fuelled powered cranes have brought us, is a higher lifting speed
-
Wood Gas Vehicles: Firewood in the Fuel Tank
Obsolete TechnologyDuring the Second World War, almost every motorised vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood.