Howard Johns

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since Jun 30, 2016
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Recent posts by Howard Johns

Burra

In many cases if you have access to a grid it is better than batteries. In my opinion the power of bringing communities together over energy far outweighs the benefits of one home going off grid.

But hey solar on your own roof is never the wrong choice, so don't question that. Perhaps look at what you could do next which engages your local community more widely and that could be your own local energy company.

How to guide here: http://www.energyrevolution.solutions

Howard
8 years ago
Hi Dave

In my opinion solar water heaters are the best! They can do awesome things - check out this cool project in Canada where they are basically heating an entire community pretty much on solar heating....

http://www.dlsc.ca

also excellent stuff for individual dwellings - I have it on my house and we turn off all other heating from Apr-Oct pretty much.

Can be done DIY but also for not much more very good quality products are available which will probably work better.

Of course, covered in my book.....

http://www.energyrevolution.solutions

Hope that helps

Howard
8 years ago
Hi David,

It does cover biogas and methane production again as an overview. So there are a number of examples of different scales of systems, like the small scale farm stuff that there are millions of in China, as well as the town sized systems in Germany. Its not a how too guide for the technology but there are lots of good pointers in there in terms of next steps. It mainly focuses on what can be done as a community rather than an individual homestead, but will give you a good overview of whats possible.

A snippet as follows: " In China biogas production began as early as the 1880s. By the 1950s the Government began actively promoting it and today they are actually the world leader in biogas production. It amazes me that over 40 million residential biogas fermenters have been built in China to date.  Tens of millions of families use farm and household waste to make clean cooking fuel in these backyard fermenters. Yet only 19% of the potential for biogas potential had been utilized as of 2010 . Germany generates as much electricity as two nuclear power plants with the gas produced by decaying plant matter and animal slurry. Biogas is an old technique applied around the world in low tech and high tech ways to deal with a range of materials that would otherwise be considered as waste problems. However in true alchemist fashion it turns muck into gold, producing a couple of really useful outputs in tackling the waste stream: gas and fertilizer. "

Good luck with it

Howard
8 years ago
Thanks for the great review Burra, so pleased you get the ideas in the book and have got something from it.

Having been immersed in climate and energy for over 20 years I really wanted to write a social business activists guide for people who were worried about the issues but didn't know where to start.

Reading you review gives me hope that I got there!
8 years ago
Hi All,

Pleased you are enjoying the book - and yes it does cover hydro. In fact it covers all technologies appropriate for community owned renewable energy plants and a fair bit more besides. It covers hydro in a broad sense - looking at the scale of hydro projects around the world - which are often pretty unsustainable, then it gives a series of pointers and guidance for developing community owned hydro resources. We tried to do it on our local river and it can be a pretty complex process.

Keep the questions coming!

Howard
8 years ago