Renewable energy is making great advances. My association with Home Power Magazine has given me a whole new perspective about the importance of such advances. For a long time, Redwood Alliance was called a "safe energy organization," but we were best known as an "anti-nuclear group." We often told people that solar and wind were the replacement for nuclear and fossil-fueled power, but we didn't really know much about it back then. Now we are just as much a "pro-renewable" organization as we are "anti-" anything else.
Home Power's web site quotes an anonymous reader, "I've been an environmental and energy activist for over 15 years, and the single most important thing I have done to improve the earth and my own well-being was to get rid of the utility grid and install solar electricity at my home."
That may be true, and I feel much the same way. I have been living without utility power for 10 years, and I love it. A handful of PV (solar electric) modules grace the south side of my home, happily charging batteries during the day so I can have lights, videos, a toaster, and other household electrical appliances when I come home.
My house has all the modern conveniences, I don't "freeze in the dark" as the utility industry would have you believe. All it required was an interest in learning, a modest investment, and, most important, the will to make the change.
We have a couple of volunteers that will be organizing another Take Your Bedroom Off the Grid workshop for this coming spring or summer. We urge you to keep an eye out for the workshop to help you on the path to energy independence.
In the meantime, until you can make all your own electricity, please get rid of your nuclear utility and sign up with Green Mountain Energy Resources.
Michael
Welch
Office Coordinator