Andy Reynolds author, instructor, experimenter, forester, and long term promoter of low impact and self reliant living has partnered with lowimpact.org to release an updated version of his popular book ‘Wind and Solar Electricity: A practical DIY guide’. Read more

This is a draft outline of a design for an energy commons in any town – an energy sector owned by communities, providing affordable, locally-generated, renewable energy. Read more

This is the first of a two-part conversation, about whether we can transition to renewable energy within the current system, or whether we need system change. Read more

Interview with Marcus Saul of Island Power, an energy company with incredible ideas that could be world-changing, in terms of building a new kind of (commons) economy. Read more

George Monbiot has joined a campaign called ‘Reboot Food’, working with techno-utopians who would like to see governments remove support for organic food and deregulate the GM industry, as well as producing bacteria-based food in giant factories (‘precision-fermentation’), and getting rid of smallholdings. Read more

Major energy loss is a huge issue in our electrical system. Read more

John Cantor from HeatPumps.co.uk asks the question: Are some heat pumps performing as badly as various recent stories have been reporting? Read more

Lowimpact has been around since 2001, and we’ve provided lots of ways to help people live more sustainably. We’re going to also be focusing on how to build the ‘commons’ economy in future, as a viable alternative to the status quo. Read more

We’ve blogged before about the great work the Big Solar Co-op are doing, bringing solar into communities. Here Jon Halle explores the potential for solar to provide some protection against energy price rises for small businesses and community-based organisations. Read more

It looks as though heat pumps are going to provide a lot more of our heating in the future – although there has been some controversy about how well they work in old buildings. Heat pump specialist John Cantor answers some of those concerns. Read more

18,000 empty planes will fly across Europe in early 2022. These flights will release 422,280 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Neither the EU nor Lufthansa seems likely to back down. Read more

We cover ground-source heat pumps more than air-source heat pumps in our topic introduction, so here’s some additional information about air-source heat pumps from our advisor John Cantor: Read more

SOURCE turns food waste into energy, fertiliser and compost to grow healthy crops and create local jobs – in the heart of our cities! Read more

In early October 2021 I was teaching a series of workshops for The Brighton Permaculture Trust. One of these was a solar battery half-day workshop which I believe went very well, giving people an introduction to further solar courses. The other workshop was about woodland management; there will be more in 2022. Those people who… Continue reading How to buy second-hand solar panels Read more

Over five weeks we’ve published a range of Stay Grounded factsheets about various kinds of techno-greenwashing provided by the aviation industry. Here we look at the potential for synthetic electro-fuels, or e-fuels. Read more

Over five weeks we’re publishing a range of Stay Grounded factsheets about various kinds of techno-greenwashing provided by the aviation industry. This one is about the promise of biofuels. Read more

Over five weeks we’re publishing a range of Stay Grounded factsheets about various kinds of techno-greenwashing provided by the aviation industry. Here we look at the promise of hydrogen-powered flight. Read more

Over five weeks we’re publishing a range of Stay Grounded factsheets about various kinds of techno-greenwashing provided by the aviation industry. Here we look at the promise of electric-powered flight. Read more

Here’s a conversation with Emmanuel Savard, co-founder of a group in Costa Rica that’s looking at providing all the essentials of life – food production, housing and energy – for their town via regenerative, non-extractive, sustainable, community-based exchange and investment models. Read more

Over the next five weeks we’ll be publishing a range of Stay Grounded factsheets about various kinds of techno-greenwashing provided by the aviation industry. We’d like to help expose the greenwashing of the aviation industry. First up – efficiency improvements: the lie that aviation can become carbon-neutral via ever-greater aircraft efficiency, reducing the need for… Continue reading Stop greenwashing of aviation: 1. efficiency improvements Read more