News and good all-around references on renewable and alternate energy subjects. Reference information for Do-It-Yourself renewable energy projects.
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Alternate Energy News, Blogs, Guides | |
Clean Technica http://cleantechnica.com/ |
![]() "Cleantech news and views: solar energy, wind energy, energy efficiency, and more." |
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/
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![]() Well maintained and up-to-date. |
Midwest Energy News www.midwestenergynews.com/ |
![]() While it says midwest, they cover a lot of national energy news. |
Renewable Energy Magazine |
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EarthToys - Your Energy Resource EarthToys emagazine:
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![]() An emagazine
published every couple months with good interviews and articles on renewable
energy topics -- INCLUDING one this month on our Half Program.
The full achieves of the emagazine are available online. |
Green Options
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Good Dirt Radio
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![]() The
interviews tend to be fairly short, and get to the important stuff quickly. |
AutoblogGreen |
![]() Very high volume of new stories. |
Hybrid Cars |
![]() Good source on information on what's new in hybrid cars. |
Green Car Congress http://www.greencarcongress.com/
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treehugger
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![]() Since being bought by the Green Channel, Treehugger has become more green fluff and less useful, but still some good ideas come through. |
The Oil Drum http://www.theoildrum.com/ OilDrum Campfire -- Discussions on oil and energy... |
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Yahoo Discussion Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ |
Yahoo hosts a huge number of discussion groups that cover just about any
area you might be interested in. You can also easily start a new
discussion group on a topic that grabs you. I participate in the Simply Solar and Solar Heat groups regularly. |
Inhabitat | Carries some interesting stories on green architecture. A few good interesting ideas amidst a lot of goofy stuff. |
DIY Sites Run by People These are sites run by individuals who are very much into Do-It-Yourself renewable energy and conservation -- kind of like Build-It-Solar. Each one shows lots of innovation, many practical projects, and lots of good design advice. They don't tell you "you can't do that" -- they show you how to do it. The sites are listed in no particular order. |
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ART TEC -- Guy Marsden |
![]() Guy has excellent how-to's on the projects he has built form his home/business: solar space and water heating, solar electricity, solar lawn mowers, and some good conservation projects. Guy has a strong interest in art and builds some beautiful furniture and offers some really innovative light pattern art work... |
Doug Kalmer Doug's projects on Builid-It-Solar... |
![]() I'd like to thank Doug for taking the time to document all these projects and for making them available on Build-It-Solar. Doug's projects on Builid-It-Solar... |
Kris De Voecht -- Solar Projects
Building solar collectors project - overview... This page has a
list of links to pages that detail the collector and storage construction.
The list is easy to miss -- its right under the "News and blog" entry. |
![]() Material on building collectors, heat storage tanks, and heat exchangers. The thing that sets Kris's projects apart is the very high level of workmanship. |
JC-Solar Homes -- John Canivan
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I Will Try http://www.iwilltry.org |
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Red Rock Energy http://www.redrok.com |
![]() Duane is also the maker of a very simple, inexpensive, and popular kit for implementing sun tracking collectors. The site can be a little daunting to navigate around in, but hang in there and you will find what you want. |
George's Workshop http://www.ffwdm.com/solar/solar-index.htm |
![]() Lots of other interesting projects on George's site. |
Solar Periodicals | |
Mother Earth News |
![]() Quite a few good how-to articles on passive solar designs, greenhouses, etc. over the years. You will find many references to individual MEN articles for solar projects on this site. You can also search or browse their archives. Archive articles can be read online, or CD's of back issues are available. |
Home Power Magazine |
![]() All the
HP articles are available for download at their site -- some for free. They also offer
a DVD with every article published in their 20 year history for $95 -- an
instant renewable energy library. |
Fine Homebuilding Magazine
How to get articles from Fine Homebuilding ...
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![]() Online access to about 1500 of the best of Fine Homebuilding articles is quite reasonable -- use the link at the left to see how this works. |
Journal of Light Construction http://www.jlconline.com |
![]() Lots of good articles with lots of detail -- some on energy efficient construction. They also host an online discussion forum. The website sells a DVD with all 24 years of articles. |
Solar Today
American Solar Energy Society (ASES) |
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Backwoods Home Magazine http://www.backwoodshome.com/article_index.html
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![]() Has a number of articles on solar and alternate energy, several of them are referenced from this site. To search their achieves follow the link, and scroll down to the "Energy" section. Articles available online. An Alternate Energy CD with all of their alternate energy articles is also available at a low price. |
Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter/Magazine |
![]() Unfortunately, the ESSN stopped publishing in 2006, but the back issues are still available as free downloads, and contain much interesting material. |
Alternate Technology Association (ATA) and ReNew Magazine
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A wide ranging Australian renewable energy organization. Their ReNew Magazine carries many DIY solar projects. Much more. |
Good Solar Reference Sites | |
Heating and Cooling -- DOE EERE site
Subject Index: |
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Your Home Technical Manual http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/index.html
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![]() If you live in the northern hemisphere, you need to remember to switch north with south when reading this. |
Southface |
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Solar Rating and Certification Corporation
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The SRCC is an independent organization that
tests and certifies solar collectors and solar water heating systems.
Before you buy a system, check out how it does in the SRCC ratings -- you
may be surprised! The tests include both durability and performance. |
Florida Solar Energy Center |
![]() The FSEC provides quite a bit of practical help for those who want to build projects. They have also done some excellent research projects on solar and efficient heating and cooling. |
Arizona Solar Center http://www.azsolarcenter.com/index.html
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Canmet Energy Technology Center | Very extensive solar publications library. Solar software. |
Energy Planet -- Renewable Energy Directory
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![]() Good descriptions, and some reviews. Many of the categories have a "DIY" section. From some of the same folks who provide Alternate Energy News (listed above). |
Low Impact Living Initiative | Nice UK site -- promoting sustainable alternatives to various aspects of everyday life. |
OtherPower.com | A good deal of material on wind power with a very good list of links to wind and other alternate power sites. |
Energy Facts -- All Things Energy | An extensive set of carefully selected links to energy sites that providing data on energy use, price and demand outlooks, historical energy use and rates, ... |
SciTechResources.gov
http://www.scitechresources.gov/scitech-search-tips.php
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A catalog of government science and technology web sites. A somewhat systematic way to find what the gov is doing or has done in any energy (or other) area. |
Getting Your Questions Answered -- Online Discussion Forums | |
Send me an email... | You can email me questions -- please read this first to make sure that you provide the needed info in your question... |
Online Discussion Forums for Renewable Energy... |
There are quite a few online forums providing good information on renewable
energy. You can post a question and get some expert (and sometimes not
so expert :) help. I participate regularly in this list of discussion forums, and I think they are good ones... There are likely many other good ones I don't know about. |
Solar TV and Video |
Hot and Cold TV |
Its factual, covers a lot of renewable energy projects, down to earth, and often funny -- hard to beat all that! Definitely worth a look. |
TV Series: Living With Ed HGTV http://livingwithed.net/index.asp NEW: New season starting August 26 on HGTV
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TV series about
![]() Not what you expect from a well known Hollywood actor. The things I find most appealing about this series is that 1) Ed "walks the walk" -- this is not an hour a week TV exercise -- this is how they live. 2) its not preachy -- in fact, its all done with a good sense of humor, 3) the things Ed has done and the projects he tackles are generally sound and well thought out, not just the usual TV "looks cool" stuff. Update: It does seem like in later seasons Ed's projects have gotten trended toward the fluff side of green -- hopefully Ed will see the light and get back on track. |
Renewable Energy Programs (Green Tags) | |
The Green Power Network http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/
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![]() Buying power from one of these programs supports the development of renewable energy power generation. Participating in one of the programs may be more practical for you than installing your own renewable energy system. |
Articles | |
Basking In the Sun, Tom Murphy http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/01/basking-in-the-sun/ |
![]() A good, fresh, first principles approach. |
Think You're Making a Difference? Think
Again http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/coal.html
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Irrational Incandescence, The Economist Magazine, June 2nd, 2007
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9217972
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The Economist has been carrying a lot of (I think) well thought out articles on Climate Change lately - the last place in the world I would have thought to look. |
Bozeman Montana Renewable Energy Resources -- There is a lot going on in renewable energy here in Bozeman Montana -- here are a few of the Bozeman area businesses and organizations active in renewable energy. | |
Choice Energy -- Bozeman Bio-Fuels http://www.bozemanbiofuels.com/
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Liquid Solar Systems http://www.liquidsolarsystems.com/index.html
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![]() Todd is a skilled system designer and installer who has a genuine interest in making renewable energy work in Bozeman -- this includes working with people who want to do their own systems. |
Solar Bug http://www.freedrive-ev.com/index.html
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SolarBair -- Solar Hot Water Info
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![]() Check out his website, which has some interesting information and articles. |
The Bozeman House http://www.bozemanhouse.com/our_house.php
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Sage Mountain
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![]() They offer excellent free tours each month that give you a chance to see the many renewable energy projects they have done -- these include solar electric, wind, solar heating, sustainable building techniques, composting toilets, and more. |