About Us

We are group of renewable energy enthusiasts located in a remote corner of the northern Colorado mountains. Every member of our staff has lived off the grid for over a decade, with some at over 20 years. Our focus has always been on do-it-yourself projects, and we enjoy sharing the lessons we've all learned over the years with others who live off the grid, or are planning to move there.

Our parent company is Buckville Publications LLC, located high in the mountains west of Masonville, Colorado, USA.
CONTACT US HERE

Our Websites:

Otherpower.com

A huge FREE resource for alternative energy enthusiasts and experimenters. Build your own low-rpm permanent-magnet alternators, battery chargers, anemometers, wind turbines, hydro turbines and more. Free information on building remote power systems for cheap.

The Otherpower Store

Your source for renewable energy books, wind turbine parts and kits, hard-to-find balance of system and data acquisition components and more. We DO NOT sell any books that we haven't personally read and deemed excellent, and we sell only system components that we have personally used during our installations and classes.

Fieldlines.com - the Otherpower Discussion Board

A very active discussion board, with topic areas covering wind, solar, hydro, and more. Simply sign up for a free account, and read the FAQs and terms of use before your first post.

Buckville.com

The center of our educational activities and publishing company. You'll find detailed listings of all our upcoming classes and workshops here, links to past workshops, and information about wholesale sales of our book Homebrew Wind Power.

What We Do

Training workshops - We offer a variety of unique training programs all over the USA and Canada in small wind power and off-grid systems, ranging from one-day classroom sessions to intensive 6-day hands-on workshops. Our sister company, Buckville Energy, is accredited by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), the Institute for Sustainable Power Quality (ISPQ), and the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) as a Continuing Education Provider, and many of our courses qualify for CEUs for your professional certifications.
Book sales - We are constantly expanding our selection of renewable energy books. We don't offer anything we haven't read and found valuable.
Book publishing - We are the publishers of “Homebrew Wind Power” and have more books in the pipeline for this year. If you are a talented writer looking to be published, drop us a line.
Wind turbine kits and parts - For folks who don't want to tackle the project of building a wind turbine (from our book) completely from scratch, we offer all the parts and components ala carte, and complete kits that are ready to assemble, balance and fly.
Balance of system components - We are pleased to offer essential and hard-to-find balance of system components for wind turbine systems. We're not going to have the lowest prices on the Internet, but you can be assured your tech support will be from some of the most knowledgeable folks in the small wind business.
Consulting - With the rising popularity of grid-tied solar in urban and suburban areas, the proper design of off-grid power systems in remote areas is becoming a lost art. We specialize in off-grid applications, and are available to design and install new systems or troubleshoot old ones.

Meet our staff

Dan Fink, Executive Director
DanF has lived off the grid, high in the Northern Colorado mountains, since 1991, 11 miles from the nearest power pole or phone line. He has a BA in Technical Journalism from Colorado State University, and spent 10 years in the field as a renewable energy system consultant, designer and installer. He has been employed as a renewable energy technical author and educator since the year 2000, and is the Executive Director of Buckville Energy Consulting, and the Editor-in-Chief of Buckville Publications LLC. Dan is co-author of the book “Homebrew Wind Power,” and his articles and photographs frequently appear in such magazines as Home Power, Back Home, Solar Professional, The Journal of Green Building, and Lighting Today. He is a regular “Ask the Experts” columnist for Home Power Magazine.
Dan Bartmann, Education Director
DanB grew up off the grid in the Colorado mountains starting at age three, and has lived there ever since. He is the Education Director of Buckville Energy Consulting, and co-author of the book “Homebrew Wind Power.” His articles and photographs have appeared in both Home Power Magazine and Back Home Magazine, and he is the founder of Otherpower.com, a website devoted to home energy production. Dan's focus and passion are on educating the public about both the potential and the pitfalls of small wind power. His innovative small wind turbine designs have achieved recognition worldwide, and are ideally suited for local manufacture in impoverished and developing regions. He teaches and consults regularly on the topic across the US and internationally for NGOs, educators, and homeowners alike.
George C
George is a retired professional welder; he is our metalworking instructor during hands-on classes, and he fabricates our wind turbine parts and kits. If you've met George, you'll never forget the experience. And if you haven't, just sign up for one of our hands-on wind turbine classes. No matter how clumsy you are, he'll teach you how to weld. He has lived off-grid since 1994.
Scotty L
Scotty is a professional woodworker; he is our woodworking instructor during hands-on classes, and be fabricates the wind turbine blades in our kits. He is quite possibly the most patient instructor in the world; you'll be amazed at how fast you'll learn to carve a wind turbine blade using only hand tools. He has lived off-grid since 1992.
Doretta C
Doretta is a retired journeyman electrician; she teaches alternator fabrication during hands-on classes, and builds and assembles the alternators in our wind turbine kits. She also keeps us sane during chaotic workshops, and won't let us take electrical short cuts during wind turbine installations. She has lived off-grid since 1997.
History
Otherpower was originally founded in the year 2000 by Forcefield Magnets in Fort Collins, Colorado. The website, discussion board and the new online store here are now owned by Buckville Publications LLC. This move was made because our passions over the last few years have been focused on renewable energy, not magnets. If you need to contact Forcefield about a past order, we would be happy to relay a message for you.

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