This guide explains everything you need to know to build stand-alone photovoltaic systems that can power almost anything you want.
We built a pedal-powered generator and controller, which is practical to use as an energy source and exercise machine in a household – and which you can integrate into a solar PV system. We provide detailed plans to build your own, using basic skills and common hand tools.
George Cove, a forgotten solar power pioneer, may have built a highly efficient photovoltaic panel 40 years before Bell Labs engineers invented silicon cells. If proven to work, his design could lead to less complex and more sustainable solar panels.
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known.
If we build them out of wood, large wind turbines could become a textbook example of the circular economy.
To improve energy security, we need to make infrastructures less reliable.
Compressed air energy storage is a sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.
Adjusting energy demand to supply would make switching to renewable energy much more realistic than it is today.
Matching supply to demand at all times makes renewable power production a complex, slow, expensive and unsustainable undertaking.
Solar panels on window sills and balconies can supply more power than you would think.
Directly coupling DC power sources with DC loads can result in a significantly cheaper and more sustainable solar system.
Energy storage is often ignored when scientists investigate the sustainability of PV systems.