Act: Inspiration

Home Biogas: Renewable Energy from Food Waste (Part I of Ecological Civilisation – Free Course)

By Samuel Alexander, originally published by Simplicity Institute

February 22, 2022

biogas

This presentation is about making renewable energy in your backyard from food scraps. Dr Alexander provides an introduction to domestic-scale biogas production and provides an independent, four-year review of the Home Biogas system.

This is Part I of the Ecological Civilisation series, written and presented by Samuel Alexander, co-director of the Simplicity Institute.

The introduction is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxC-r…

This series will be grappling with the problems of consumerism and the growth economy; envisioning alternative, post-carbon ways of life; and considering what action can be taken, both personally and politically, to help build an ecological civilisation. New presentations will be added to this playlist over time:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…

You can support this channel by purchasing an e-book from the Simplicity Institute, available on a ‘pay what you can’ basis (edit the price as you choose for a donation): https://249897.e-junkie.com

Paperbacks are available here: https://au.permacultureprinciples.com…

The Home Biogas system under review in this video is available here (this is a non-affiliated link):

https://www.homebiogas.com

UPDATE from Dr Alexander: “In the presentation I said that I knew of no national or international standards that regulated household biogas systems. I’ve just discovered that recently international standards have been created: https://www.iso.org/standard/76157.html – This is great news as it shows this technology is gaining acceptance and recognition.”

Samuel Alexander’s work is available here: http://samuelalexander.info

The Simplicity Institute website is here: https://simplicityinstitute.org

We’d like to thank Andrew Doodson, Jordan Osmond, and Antoinette Wilson for offering invaluable production advice.

The opening image is kindly provided by Melissa Davis.

Other image references are available here: http://samuelalexander.info/image-ref…

The music is provided by Mortimer’s Method: https://mortimersmethod.bandcamp.com

 

Teaser photo credit: Biogas production in rural Germany. By Cec-clp – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14914191

Samuel Alexander

Over the last ten years Dr Samuel Alexander has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ as part of the Master of Environment. He has also been a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and is currently co-Director of the Simplicity Institute. Alexander’s interdisciplinary research focuses on degrowth, permaculture, voluntary simplicity, ‘grassroots’ theories of transition, and the relationship between culture and political economy. His current research is exploring the aesthetics of degrowth and energy descent futures. His books include Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary (2019, co-authored with Brendan Gleeson); Carbon Civilisation and the Energy Descent Future (2018, co-authored with Josh Floyd); Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth (2017); Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics (2016); Deface the Currency: The Lost Dialogues of Diogenes (2016); Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits (2015); Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever (2015); and Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013); he is also editor of Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture (2009) and co-editor of Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future (2014). In 2016 he also released a documentary called A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity, co-produced with Jordan Osmond of Happen Films. Alexander blogs at www.simplicitycollective.com.
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