These systems weigh less than batteries, which simplifies the logistics required to support military operations in off-grid areas.
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This same approach can be applied to results-based finance for the off-grid market.
Be you a survivalist, an environmentalist or a cheapskate-ist, you can join the growing movement of Americans embracing off-grid living.
Applications for Evergreen's solar cells and systems include highway call boxes, microwave stations, street and billboard lighting and off-grid rural electrification.
In an off-grid village in India, for example, biogas from an anaerobic digester could be burned to drive the Stirling engine to generate power.
They are also most useful in consistently sunny areas for those who can afford high upfront costs of rooftop panels, or who live in off-grid locations.
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They can be used for communications, border patrol initiatives, disaster response, relief missions, and much more, meeting the most demanding infrastructure requirements in on-grid applications and off-grid areas.
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The logistical challenges involved in sustaining military operations in remote areas where wars are commonly waged has convinced the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy a growing number of cutting-edge solar-energy technologies in off-grid combat zones.
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The young inventor envisages PaveGen systems being used to power off-grid appliances such as public lighting, illuminated street maps and advertising, and to be installed in areas of dense human traffic such as city centers, underground stations and school corridors.
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We also covered several off-grid devices that we'd like to have in the event of another storm of Sandy's magnitude -- Nokero's compact SunRay Pro solar charger, Berkey's super-versatile and effective water filter and Eton's hand-crank cellphone charger.
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Meanwhile, the FDA approved the world's first bionic eye and biotech researchers developed a painless sugar-covered vaccine bandage that could replace needles and doesn't require refrigeration -- which opens up groundbreaking applications for off-grid locations in the developing world.
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Such a system does have some obvious limitations when it comes to reaching areas not served by the Maglev, but the filmmakers thought of that too, and developed so-called off-grid cars exemplified by a red Lexus sports coupe in the movie.
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It has been suggested that bringing forward the timing of Winter Fuel Payments for off-grid households might provide some help by enabling them to stock up on fuel at a time of year when prices are likely to lower than in the middle of winter.
"There's a desire to step out of the rat race, and in America, that goes very deep in the national psyche, " says Nick Rosen, author of "Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America" and editor of www.off-grid.net.
With its tree-lined dirt roads, whitewashed cottages and vintage signposts giving distances in miles (South Africa converted to metric in the 1970s), Nieu Bethesda is an off-the-grid destination.
And if you've got what it takes to look after yourself, with a little help from some earthy friends, here are a few off-the-grid destinations that will take you in.
Chowdhury, who formerly headed up IT for the Grameen Bank, describes what happened in off-the-grid Bangladeshi villages when her team put solar power and mobile technology into the hands of illiterate women.
We take off-the-shelf IT and Internet technology and transform the power grid and electricity transmission lines into an energy Internet.
Or they may increase the efficiency of the grid by consuming off-peak load and pushing more kilowatt-hours over the same infrastructure.
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For some off-griders, it's a matter of having little or no impact on the environment -- literally living off the power grid.
Go Off the Grid with a three-night stay for up to six in a one-bedroom condo at the Aspen at Streamside.
Few people off the grid have the funds to buy the kilowatt-scale solar system commonly found on Gridder homes.
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The latter's batteries can be charged off the electrical grid (which is almost entirely powered by non-oil fuels) and operate for upwards of twenty miles without using a drop of gasoline, and for a fraction of the cost of oil-based fuels.
When we think of Earth Day, many of us think of good ol' hippies bent on living off the electrical grid, drinking spring water from somewhere and recycling everything -- bottles, shoes and lint maybe.
Strictly defined, Private Health isn't part of the growing phenomenon known as concierge medicine, where doctors charge a retainer for more face-time and personal attention, and often take their practices off the commercial and government payment grid.
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Families who have already weaned themselves off the grid, or opted, when possible, for public transport, veganism, non-exploitation of native species, refusing to wear leather, fur, or exploit animals in any way, need to be rewarded for their benign, cruelty-free (or nearly free) environmental altruism.
Any electrical or electronic device - including the grid's transformers - not shielded against this pulse would be, at best, taken temporarily off-line.
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