| Wind | | Electronics and Data Acquisition | | Hydro | Solar | Fossil Fuels | Hard to Categorize | Magazines/E-zines | Government and NGO |
| Remote Living/Homesteading/Survival | Steam | BioFuels | Hydrogen | | Used/Surplus Equipment | New Equipment | Friends and Family |
Wind Power Links |
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Scoraig Wind Electric Hugh Piggott's homebuilt wind power homepage. Great information about small-scale wind power--one of the best websites out there. Lots of interesting pages and links. Blade design and construction techniques, Tip Speed Ratio explained in plain english, Rotor design info and other downloads, and pictures and information about Hugh's Brakedrum Windmill. The newest pages of his site describe in detail the axial flux designs that Hugh is building at his seminars now, both an 8-foot dia. and 4-foot dia. model. You can order the plans for these new machines from his site. |
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WindStuffNow.com Ed Lenz's excellent homebuilt wind power site. Lots of projects! Alternators from scratch, converting induction motors to permanent-magnet alternators, useful formulas, blade building, 3-phase explained in plain English, inexpensive blade design software, and more. Really cool site, with lots of informative pictures too. |
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Mike Klemen's Wind Generator Page Lots of information, photos, maintenence logs, reliability reports, windmill sound clips and data aquisition plots from a variety of working wind installations. A really nice site! |
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Small Wind Discussion Board A very active, moderated discussion board about wind power and other alternative energy topics. Populated by a bunch of very knowledageble people, including many professionals in the wind power field. |
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The Otherpower.com Discussion Board Our own discussion board, populated by thousands of folks who like to build wind turbines, hydro plants and other power-generating equipment from scratch! A great place to go for help with your projects and renewable energy questions. |
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Paul Gipe's Website Lots of small- and large-scale wind power articles and information from an expert in the field. Paul Gipe is also an active participant in the AWEA wind Discussion Board, and has written excellent books on the subject. Great information on avoiding wind power scams. |
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Savonious Rotor Savonious Rotor windmill sketches and information from Australia. This windmill design is built from 55 gallon oil drums, and used to pump water mechanically. |
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American Wind Energy Association A non-profit organization dedicated to wind power. Large archives full of articles and free information. |
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Windmission of Denmark Danish windmill manufacturer's site with many pages about windmill and propellor design and construction. |
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The Illustrated History of Wind Power An excellent site that traces the complete history of windpower. Great information, and BEAUTIFUL wind power pictures! |
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Picoturbine.com Includes a unique educational windmill kit, wind power books, and Savonius rotor simulator software, as well as many links. |
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Windpower.org Big Danish wind power information site in 5 languages. Many FAQs, power calculator programs, and formulas. Excellent technical explanations and formulas on Betz, turblance, available power and many more topics! Focused on wind energy in general and primarily commercial products, the information and math are excellent for anyone. |
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Windstream Power Systems Manufacturer of reliable and simple wind, water and human-powered generators. Their Windstream wind turbine has been built for over 2 decades -- it tilts back to furl out of the wind when speeds get too high. |
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Windmill World Huge wind power resource, about all types of wind power, big and small, past and present. Loads of pictures from worldwide, FAQs, resources, links, and more. An excellent site! |
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Steve's Tape Drive Motor Wind Turbine Lots of great photos and construction details about this working, flying wind turbine made with a tape drive motor as the generator. |
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The Back Shed Homebuilt wind turbine site from an Australian friend from our discussion board. Lots of pictures and construction details, plus kits for sale based on Fisher-Paykel smartdrive motors converted to alternators. The kits take care of the complicated metalworking bits for you. This site is well worth checking out! |
Renewable Energy Electronics and Data Acquisition Links |
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Digital Panel Meters Circuit Specialists Inc, a great resource with excellent deals on digital panel meters, electronic parts and test equipment for off-grid power systems! |
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Circuits for the Hobbyist by VA3AVR Tons of circuits and electronics tutorials! Including our Easter egg anemometer. A very valuable site for learning electronics, and experimenting with circuits. |
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Vortex Anemometer from Inspeed A slick, low-cost, ready-to-fly anemometer, only US$65. Check it out! |
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Make Your Own Windmeter Free details on building a solar-powered logging anemometer with data retrievable by laptop computer. Detailed construction photos, parts lists, and instructions. |
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MTM Scientific Really neat online alternator rewinding tutorial, alternator modification booklet and kits, long range AM radio antenna kits and info for remote areas, and more. Even info and kits for aerial photography from kites! |
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Red Rock Energy Tons of electronics projects for alternative energy--charge controllers, the LED solar tracker, shunt regulators, heliostats... Free schematics and information; kits, parts and assembled products available. Tons of links; very informative site. |
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GM Alternator Modifications GM Alternator modification to output more voltage at lower RPMs. Also, self "boot-strapping" to get the rotor field started without a 12v battery. |
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12 volt fluorescent lamp drivers Homebrew conversion of standard fluorescent lamps to 12 volts. |
Hydro Power Links |
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Brownell Micro Hydro A full-service micro hydro company in central New York state. They offer a very wide product range for many different applications, and are dealers for a huge number of microhydro equipment manufacturers. |
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The Waterwheel PlaceAn excellent reference for DIY waterwheel enthusiasts! Includes calculators and information for DIY electricity-producing waterwheels also. Highly recommended. |
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Nautilus Water Turbines These folks specialize in high-quality low-head and ultra-low head hydro turbines, with heads from 3 to 12 feet. If you've ever looked into this, it's difficult to accomplish, and these folks are extremely helpful. They are not afraid of do-it-yourselfers either. |
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Water Wheel Factory The coolest hydro site around, with pictures of some amazing waterwheels! Plus energy calculations, waterwheel history, a pictorial guide to waterwheel and water turbine types and their advantages and disadvantages, hydro power links, and more. We are fond of waterwheels here at Otherpower.com, since we don't have the water resources for high-head turbines! |
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MicroHydroPower.net Wim Klunne's Micro Hydro power portal. Lots of free information, extensive hydro power links directory, downloads, web ring...lots of information! |
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Joe Cole's Microhydro Site Excellent information! Formulas, flow measurement, pipe tables, turbine types explained, and homebrew designs. Includes great information on using AC induction motors as asynchronous generators. Great site! |
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Yahoo Microhydro E-group and Discussion Board Another valuable resource! Lots of microhydro experts frequent this group, it's a great place to get your hydro questions answered. |
Solar Power Links |
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Heliotrack Local inventor of a simple, easy-to-build heliostat that uses hardware store materials and simple electronics that can be built, understood and maintained by the casual experimentor. His tracker circuit can be used for tracking PV arrays, too. We met Justin at the 2005 Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins, and got to see his heliostat in operation. Worth checking out! |
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CirKits.com Kits for building your own solar power regulator, and power center. Great information for the do-it-yourselfer, and you can buy just the PC board, parts and plans for cheap. Lots of links to other DIY power info too. |
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Bill Darden's BATTERY FAQs A definitive resource for deep cycle and car battery information, with a huge battery link directory. Excellent! |
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Green-Trust.org Steve Spence's monster link directory for many Renewable Energy topics! Formerly WebConx.com. |
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Solar Hot Water Heater - home construction - in French All-French language page with details about building a solar water heating system from scratch. Deatiled photos and instructions. We translated it using BabelFish and could understand it just fine. Great project! |
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Arizona Solar Center Non-profit organization with information and links. |
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Solar Energy International Non-profit renewable energy education organization. They hold classes about all aspects of solar, wind and water power. |
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Renewable Energy Information in Portuguese We can't read it, but if you speak Portugese this looks like a good site! |
Fossil Fuel Energy Links |
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Utterpower.com Check out a slow-running, fuel efficient, quiet, last-forever, and affordable Diesel generator from Utterpower.com! This company imports Indian clones of the venerable Lister CS lightplant into the USA. They are experts on getting them running, and also supply AC generator heads for them. These engines can truly be called "brand new antiques." |
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GeneratorJoe.net An incredible variety of generators for sale new, used, for rent, for lease....plus transfer switches, enclosures, battery chargers and more. Lots of free information pages to help you select the right equipment. Factory authorized reps for numerous brands. Gasoline, diesel, PTO and propane/natural gas gensets in single phase, 3-phase, marine models...ranging from 1000 watt portables for $700 up to containerized 2000 kW behemoths for $300,000 and up! Very informative website. |
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Generator Gus Old Engines A great gallery of old engines, with neat pictures. |
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Homemade Electricity Old gasoline powered battery chargers. Lots of information on alternators and generators, too...including great details on running induction motors into generators.Cool pictures! |
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RustyIron Workshop A whole bunch of old engine and generator photos. Great stuff! |
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Animated Engines Animated GIFs that show how a huge variety of different engines move and work. Internal combustion, steam, Stirling, etc...Great page! |
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Oilcrash.com A collection of essays, links, quotes and articles about our modern, worldwide oil-based energy systems. How government and oil company math vs. population growth and energy consumption math might add up to a future energy disaster. This site will make you think! |
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Aardvark Alternative Fuel Systems OEM that offers propane generators and alternative energy components that will allow the user to function on propane, natural gas, and other gaseous fuels. |
Hard to Categorize -- Science, lighting, fun, experiments, other resources |
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The Science Hobbyist Bill Beatty's experimental science website is simply THE BEST out there! You can get lost for days exploring his projects and links--this happens to the Otherpower.com staff frequently. Highly recommended, and FAR more interesting than television! |
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Hamsterific Everything about Hamsters--breeds, care, diet, discussion board, links, housing, health care, and more! Skippy, who powers a nightlight for DanF by running on his wheel, loves this site. He's a workin' hamster! |
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Electronic Circuits for the Hobbyist A great electronics circuit resource -- dozens of useful circuits for experimenting with your own electronics projects. We dip into Tony Van Roon's circuits library here all the time when building projects. |
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Convergance Tech -- Electric Bicycles and Pedal-powered Generators Plans, kits, parts, and completed projects for bicycle conversion. Make power while getting a workout, or let the sun and wind charge your battery for easy travelling. And check out his Bat and Rat detector too! Cool site. |
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Woodworker's Workshop Big online resource for woodworking information, plans, tools, and more. An excellent resource for folks who want to learn woodworking for carving their own props. |
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Steve Redmond's site Extremely detailed information on building a Tesla Disc Turbine. His test model did 10,200rpm on 75psi of compressed air. Detailed pictures and information. Also lots of info on casting your own metal and using the castings to build your own machine tools. The turbine was built with home-made machine tools! |
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Science Toy Maker Great pages on making science toys at home. Excellent ideas for science fair projects, and the site explains the science behind the projects in simple terms that kids (and adults) can read without having a dictionary nearby. Colorful format that kids will like. |
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Super Science Fair Projects Offers a step-by-step guide to science fair projects for students - middle through high school. There are links to over 100,000 science projects, science experiments and science fair project ideas. Parents and Teacher's Guide and Resources. They feature a variety of renewable energy projects, too, including ours. Good, deatiled information for students on the "Scientific Method" of hypothesis, experimentation, and conclusion--essential for doing well at a science fair. |
Magazines |
 Green Trust Free online renewable energy news Blog, covering all renewable energy topics that make the news. Also a large renewable energy bookstore! |
FREE monthly on-line magazine covering all aspects of renewable energy -- from solar, wind and hydro power to biodiesel, methane, ethanol, electric vehicles, solar heating, energy conservation...you get the idea. Back issues also available for free download. Otherpower.com's DanF is now a contributing author for the ESSN, too. |
 Home Power Magazine A great magazine for anyone interested in renewable energy. Lots of links and good information. Download free articles, plans and power system software. Current issue always available for free downloading. |
 Alternative energy, homesteading, farming, building, survival, and more. |
 Backwoods Home Magazine Renewable energy, homesteading, organic gardening, and remote living. DanF and DanB have many articles published here -- a great magazine! The Dans at Otherpower have a whole array of articles published here...ranging from remote communications and internet to a big series on how to build a wind turbine. |
 Online E-Zine about all things off-grid and renewable. News, discussion, projects, ideas and articles for off-grid residents, folks wanting to go off-grid, renewable energy enthusiasts, homesteaders, and the simply curious. Check the site frequently, as the feature articles change regularly. |
Government and Non-Government Agencies and Organizations |
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National Renewable Energy Laboratory In Golden, Colorado. This site has lots of free wind and solar information. Your tax dollars at work! Includes average wind speed map of the USA--a useful tool. |
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Sandia National Laboratory Department of Defense laboratory involved in solar and wind research, located in New Mexico. |
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U.S. Department of Energy A site with plenty of useful information concerning renewable energy and conservation. |
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Journey to Forever A NON-governmental organization that spreads information about the environment, renewable energy, and sustainability worldwide with student 'road trips' all over the globe. The students learn, and the locals benefit from their knowledge and technology. The trips are documented online by the students. A great organization! |
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American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) The largest non-profit, non-governmental wind energy advocacy organization in the USA. Lots of free information about wind power on their website, and also a comprehensive index of federal, state and local subsidy programs for installing wind power, including state-by-state information on net metering laws. |
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Latin American Wind Energy Association Asociación Latinoamericana de Energía Eólica Non-profit, non-governmental wind energy advocacy group covering all of Latin America, from Mexico south. They also host an annual Wind Energy Expo. Páginas web en Inglés y Español. |
Remote Living, Homesteading, Survival |
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Chatter Creek Mountain Lodge Construction Photo journal of mountain lodge construction at Chatter Creek, deep in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Follow the impossible task of building a 9300 sq. ft log building in one short summer. Editor's note--we at Otherpower.com thought we lived in a remote area until we read this web log. Wow! |
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Watersaver.com Pond liners for all purposes --from homestead ponds to industrial uses. |
Steam Power |
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TinyPower Steam Engine Kits A whole bunch of slick little steam engine kits for sale, and a cool website too. If you have a machine shop and are interested in steam power, this is great resource. |
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Pearl Engine Company Steam engines, both in kit form and already completed. From small models to engines large enough to produce substantial electricity! |
Bio-Fuels |
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VeggiePower.org Great information about biodiesel fuel! How to make it at home from vegetable oil, and how to convert engines and vehicles to run on fuel from vegetables. Lots of links and free information. |
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National BioDiesel Board News articles, information, and links about biodiesel fuel. See cars, buses, and airplanes that run on vegetables. |
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Green-Trust.org An awesome collection of wood gasification and biodiesel information and links. Run your truck on waste wood or used french fry oil! Lots of links and free information here, and pages about biodiesel, methane, methanol, etc. also. There's a working wood gas generator near Otherpower.com headquarters, we just haven't written a page about it yet. |
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Ethanol India A detailed and informative site from India with information, links and resources about ethanol fuel worldwide. Detailed articles about new ethanol production technology and specific info about ethanol production and use in India. |
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Extreme Samoa - Coconut Oil BioDiesel Extreme Samoa promotes the use of coconut oil as a substitute to diesel in power generations. Tim Jones and company have successfully modified generators to use coconut oil and are now promoting its use starting with small communities around the world. |
Hydrogen |
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American Hydrogen Association Information and links about all aspects of Hydrogen fuel, including fuel cells. News articles and links to manufacturers of Hydrogen power equipment. |
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Hydrogen Energy Center Information and links. Lots of current news articles! |
Used/Surplus |
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Energy Matters A great resource for used and surplus power equipment. Hundreds of categories, and you can place free ads. |
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Generator Mart Generatormart is an online classified ads site that includes listings for Wind Turbines. The site is also used for various types of other power generating equipment. The Generatormart Web site has an easy to use user interface for adding your turbine generator equipment and pictures on to their site. |
New Equipment |
Friends and FamilyLinks to sites from our friends, neighbors, and families |
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Lynn Fecteau Artist Lynn Fecteau is our next-door neighbor. She's famous for her 'window' paintings, where the frame is an integral part of the painting. We enjoy gazing out at tropical scenes through her 'windows,' while outside our real windows there's 3 feet of snow! |
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Canyon Spirit Gallery Neighbors Scott and Bonnie's gallery website. Fine art, pottery, wood furniture, custom ceramic funeral urns, and more. Scott builds the incredible laminated cedar wind turbine blades that we've been using on our most recent turbines. Don't make fun of Bonnie's East Coast accent! |
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Little South Fork LLC DanF and neighbor Ken Sample are trout bums, and they started this company to build fine-furniture quality fly tying desks. If you flyfish, you should check this site out! |