Off The Grid News Better Ideas For Off The Grid Living
image credit cbsnews.com
Many of America’s largest corporations now believe the electric grid is unreliable and are quietly developing the capability to operate without it.
Companies in a wide variety of industries are scrambling to produce their own energy. Retailers, technology companies, and banks now recognize the need for alternative sources of electricity.
The Bloom Box
Walmart, Google, eBay, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, FedEx, Safeway, Verizon, AT&T, Adobe, Honda, and Kaiser Permanente are among the corporate giants that have invested in the Bloom Box energy cell technology. A Bloom Box is literally a power plant in a box that uses next generation fuel cell technology to generate electricity.
Bloom Boxes don’t come cheap; each one costs around $800,000, but these companies are willing to invest in them. The companies claim they are going green or reducing pollution by purchasing such technology. What they’re also doing is ensuring that they can stay open when the electric grid goes down.
The interest in the Bloom Box indicates that these companies’ executives think that the electric grid is not dependable. Wal-Mart and Safeway want to keep their refrigerators and their cash registers running. Google wants to keep providing Internet even if the lights go out.
Companies Embracing Solar, Too
The Bloom Box is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corporate efforts to have dependable power. IKEA has purchased 500,000 solar panels as part of an effort to produce 70 percent of its own electricity.
Harness the power of the sun when the power goes out…
Walmart plans to put solar panels on 75 percent of its stores in California, a state with a notoriously unreliable electric grid. The company has made a deal with Elon Musk’s company Solar City to buy the panels.
Walmart claims it is motivated by concern for the environment, but we all know that the real “green” Walmart is interested in is money. The businesspeople that run Walmart wouldn’t be making a major investment in “alternative energy” if they didn’t think they might need it.
Grid Is No Longer Reliable
It is easy to see why corporations are looking into alternatives.
The Washington Post reported that the electric grid is pricier and less reliable. The number of power outages that affected more than 500,000 people in the United States more than doubled between 2004 and 2009, The Post’s Wonkblog noted.
The length of blackouts has also increased by around 20 percent in the last decade, Off The Grid News previously reported. Large companies simply can no longer afford to depend on the grid, so they are investing in the resources needed to generate their own power.
In August, the American Society of Civil Engineers graded America’s power grid a D+, Off The Grid News reported. The rating means the energy infrastructure is in “poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life.” It further means a “large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration” with a “strong risk of failure.”
Learn from Walmart and Google
Families and individuals need to consider generating their own electricity for their homes and small businesses. Whether you are a freelancer who depends on a computer or the operator of a small machine shop, you need electricity. Big business’s investment in alternate technologies indicates the grid may no longer be a reliable source of electricity.
Every family and small business owner needs to start looking into solar panels, fuel cells, wind technology, and other means of generating electricity. That way they can keep operating if and when the grid goes down, just like Walmart and Google intend to do. Self-sufficiency in electricity is no longer just green; it is now imperative for economic survival.
Do you know if the downed power grid in November will include Hawaiian Islands…??
What good is a backup power supply for Wal-Mart if the power grid goes down people
will storm Wal-Mart and there will be no more Wal-Mart
I was wondering essentially the same thing except how would Walmart communicate their needs to the outside world which depends on the grid? Stock up, prepare now and don’t worry about Walmart…
I think your missing the point here– no need to smash and grab… and don’t worry, I am sure they will have plenty of ‘security’ (ammo) to make sure you don’t! LOL!
Chris,
you are 100% correct. Having work disasters for 40 years, with the today’s, its mine you owe it to me attitude, these people will smash and grab or flash mob the place.
These stores will need their own private army to protect the stores and the good honest people going there to shop.
Old Nam vet,
I agree, prep now. End of story. By the way- WELCOME HOME BROTHER. RangerRick
Well, with Katrina the store video cameras caught even a police man stealing a TV and then there is the shooting of those people on the bridge and confiscation of the guns by the police. In a country wide SHTF I bet Walmart’s biggest risk will be from employees born after 1980 that will steal the store blind before mobs or cops have a chance to.
Police reflect society and if you live in an area where people murder and steal from neighbors at an alarming rate there will be at least 5% of the police that will do it first if they think they will not be held accountable.
imho, Best thing in a gird down situation is to stay home with like minded neighbors and kill any mob that approaches within 200 yards.
But, the biggest thing you should think about is not EMP pulses, SHTF, etc. It is invasion after God lets 1/3 of the USA be destroyed because of what we have done.
Wondering how many homes an $800,000 Bloom Box would supply power for if a small neighborhood invested in one?? 40 homes would have to come up with $20,000 each (ouch) to raise the funds, which might be a good trade off over spending same amount on solar array systems..??
Found this from a in 2012 EE discussion:
“A single 100 kw box, which generates enough electricity to power 100 average homes, costs between $700,000 and $800,000 — without subsidies. Lux Research figures without incentives, electricity generated from the Bloom boxes would cost $0.13 kilowatt per hour to $0.14/KWh. That’s $0.03/KWh more expensive than the average retail U.S. electricity costs, according to Lux. When incentives are including the total lifecycle cost of electricity over 10 years is $0.08 kilowatt per hour, according to Bloom Energy.”
“They mentioned a home unit for about $3k at one point, with mass production, and not a done deal. He mentioned having to create a whole supply chain for a product that had not been mass produced.”
So last week (with AC running daily/hourly) I used 355 kWh. With 168 hours in a week, my average use was 2.12 kW, with afternoon peaks of 3 kW and more. The investment cost for a Bloom Box seems to be $8 per watt. Solar panels cost $2 to $3 per watt but I would need 6 kW worth for continuous power + the batteries, etc.
I lived without electricity as a young man and turned out OK. I’m wondering what all the hubris is about generating electricity when we really know life will go on without electricity. I’m preparing my family to live without it, you can do the same and save an incredible amt. of money…or not. Please keep in mind this is our family choice, you can do whatever you choose.
I agree with you Old Nam Vet, and I salute you. People lived without it for years and years and turned out just fine! Yes it’s a huge comfort to have electricity, not have to cut wood for heat and to cook, for hot water for a warm bath, etc etc.. but it’s not as detrimental as so many people think it is..personally I prefer the natural lighting anyways.. the ones able to think “outside the box” and come out of their “comfort zones” are going to be able to make the adjustment easier then those that can’t… wish everybody the very best!
Read between the lines. This is about more than loss of electricity. Read the book, “One Second After” for a preview of life on America when an EMP takes out the power grid. The foreword is by Newt Gingrich, who has spent a considerable amount of time warning Congress about this very real threat.
“A single 100 kw box, which generates enough electricity to power 100 average homes, costs between $700,000 and $800,000 — without subsidies. ”
100 kW box divided by 100 houses is 1kW per house. That’s a toaster. The standard electricity usage for a house is 10 to 20 times more.
Yes – Looking at Typical Electrical Needs for household appliances, that 1 kW would power a 1000 watt microwave OR a 10,000 BTU window AC, but the AC would require 2200 watts start up power. Even a 140 watt Energy Star refrigerator requires 1200 watts to start up. Realize that not everything runs constantly; but, to run 1 of everything I would want simultaneously would require at least 5000 watts in the winter and at least 9000 watts in the summer. Without reserve/storage/peak capability we would need at least double constant output capability.
im wondering, will the banks, gov have backup power? how will we get our $$$ out of the atm’s? for the rest of us, guess well have to rely on solar panels and wind turbine, but we will be more independant, tho, that way
Pay close attention to the following and watch the video first. If you ignore this,
you do so at your own financial peril. You are about to be awakened to the fact
that when you put your money in your bank, the bank OWNS the money and you
become an UNSECURED CREDITOR. If the bank fails, who gets paid first?
VIDEO:
Copy and paste into your address line.
beforeitsnews.com/economics-and-politics/2013/09/take-your-money-out-of-the-bank-2456066.html
imho, Never keep anything in a bank, including the safe deposit box, that you can not afford to lose. Because when SHTF and ROL fails they are going to be nothing other then empty brick buildings to be looted and burned down by the finest members of our urban population.
See, this is exactly what the green religion wants, by killing coal and nuclear, they make ekectric more expensive so the companies can not invest profits into infrastructure. Then other companies are forced to invest in solar.
Why is this a win? Because most of the rare minerals used to produce LEDs and solar panels come from one place. China, who in turn buys our incredible debt. Basically, you are telling the drug dealer you will stay loyal to him if he pawn brokers yours treasued assets.
Have no fear. LENR is here.
Roger, could you tell us where to buy it?
Not yet, but soon.
I think Mommy Of 5 is down with it. If things do go south, one must be ready to step back in time and do as our ancestors did. No, I don’t want to and will have to drag my tribe kicking and yelling, but it can be done. The idiots-in-charge have no regard for us and we should view it as such…….
The white house just recently got solar panels put on the roof. Really makes you wonder if the government is going to leave the power off when fema does their “drill” in november. I’m getting a small solar setup just in case to run the fridge, stove, heaters. I’ll try to keep adding to it here and there. If you’ve been paying attention, every time here lately when fema does a drill, something bad happens the same day. Be prepared for yours and your family’s safety.
Our family bought a backup generator just in case we have a situation like last year in which the power grid was down for three days. We lost everything in our freezer, and refrigerator. I am currently writing a book about what would happen if other systems would go down. Like if the health care system would crash, food supplies would vanish, and many other situations.
The way boxstores work is to collect subsidies and donations from special interest groups, using the cheapest means available, to maintain appearances of productivity.
They get paid to hire quota cases, and they will get paid to install flimsy renewables.
Those will be provided by another, nationalized, too-big-to-fail business — a Solyndra or Enron, whose existence cannot be justified by the forces of a free market.
I want to make clear that I have no particular problem with decentralized energy, but these people have never been especially concerned with efficiency, outside of the scope of their narrow margins.
> whose existence cannot be justified by the forces of a free market.
That would be Hoku where we used StimuWaste money to prop up a solar company, then it was bought by the Chinese government and it helped pay for a 99 year lease on USA soil. Now they are installing their technology on US military bases.
So we paid for the property, we paid for teh reasearch, we paid for the over priced rare minerals, and we pay for over priced solar panels to be installed on military bases in … Hawaii ! I think I remember something about Obama and Hawaii.
Just like Springfiedl IL got 1.1 billion, they tried to say it created 8,000+ jobs, after I sent to the so called senators and Fox News the evidence and farce of 0 jobs were actually created they revised it to that. Please note that the mayor a short time later comitted “suicide”.
When you have time search for StimUwaste Porkatello
Hello good friend, I just wanted to inform you how your content was beneficial to me. I was excited to take the advice you actually so generously posted and apply it. Your blog article truly made it easier for me and I wish to inform your devoted subscribers that they genuinely have some one who’s their thoughts right. Many thanks again for the amazing article. I’ve truly book-marked it on my favored on-line book-marking web site and I advise everybody else do the exact same.
I’m not that much of
a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep
it up! I’ll go
ahead and bookmark your website to come back in the future.
All the best
All that investment for the 2% of the population that will:
1) have reliable transportation to get to a store,
2) communication with each other,
3) have funds available in banks that have made backup plans,
4) are capable of using their purchases (think frozen foods, fresh meat, etc.)
Folks, WTLGO (When The Lights Go Out), simple day-to-day living will not be as simple as going to the store for a gallon of milk or to the bank for a cash withdrawal from an ATM.
If you’ve prepared, you’ll be one of very few who have, and your “friends” will be coming to you for help. How much can you afford to help them?
Stock up and lock up. Or head for the woods to camp and live off the land.