Living off the Grid: 25 Amazing Survival Lessons on Using Renewable Energy Systems for Living Off the Grid

Introduction

Before the discovery and the development of the use of coal in the nineteenth century, almost all forms of energy usage was based on renewable energy. It can be rightly deduced that the oldest and most renowned use of renewable energy was in the form of the traditional biomass which was used in providing fuel for fires. This dates as far back as 790,000 years ago. Isn’t this rather surprising?  This means before the development and increase of technology, renewable power has been in existence.  Technology only tried to create other means of energy generation.  These creations have been found to be limited one way or the other due to several factors. But renewable energy is not controlled by human creation.  They exist already with nature.

The use of biomass for making fire did not become a common practice until several hundreds of thousands of years afterwards, approximately between two hundred and four hundred years into the past. Probably the second oldest form of renewable energy to be used is the use of the wind. The wind has been known over time to be used in driving ships over water.  This activity can be traced to as far back as seven thousand years into the past with the ships that were ridden on the Nile River.

If we try to move closer into history that we find recorded, we would find that the basis sources of traditionally renewable energies were through human labour, power from water, animal power, wind power, grain crushing in windmills and also firewood. Research showed that in the United States, right up till the nineteenth century, oil and the natural gas were equally on the same level of importance just like wind and solar were found to be later in 2010.

Around 1873 there were concerns that were based on the fact that coal was no longer surplus.  Societies were running out of coal use. This concern brought about experiments channeled towards the use of solar energy. There were the developments of solar engines.  These developments continued up until World War I broke out. The importance of the use of solar energy was beginning to get recognition in 1911. This recognition was emphasized in a scientific American article published in that year. As that time predictions were made regarding the not too distant future. It was predicted that natural fuels would be exhausted will leave energy from the sun as the only remaining source of energy for the human race in its entirety.

In the year 1956, the theory of peak oil was published. Later environmentalists promoted the development of renewable energy usage in the 1970s. This was advocated for both as a replacement for the eventual depletion of oil and also as a medium of creating an escape from the impending depletion of oil. The first wind turbines to be used in generating electricity came forth this period. Solar energy has long been made use of as a means of heating and cooling at various levels. Solar panels were however too expensive to be used in building solar farms up until the year