February 23, 2026 | Breakthroughs: Starlink + Next-Gen Batteries = Viable Homesteads

A growing number of people, fed up with dysfunctional cities and craving a simpler/safer life, are fantasizing about homesteading. But only a tiny fraction of that group has actually made the move. Why? Because that level of self-sufficiency is vastly harder than it looks.

Or…at least it was vastly harder. Two breakthroughs might revolutionize the homesteading concept:

Starlink

Anyone who’s been stuck with slow Internet service knows what a bottleneck it creates.

Communicating with the broader world and researching important questions, let alone actually working online, requires more bandwidth than is available in many rural areas, leaving people who might prefer small towns or homesteads stranded in dysfunctional cities and their suburbs.

But Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet network has solved that problem by offering fast, simple Internet pretty much everywhere, making bucolic little towns just as viable for digital workers as downtown Los Angeles.

Next-Generation Batteries

Millions of acres of otherwise farmable land are outside the range of local power grids. But off-grid life is, with today’s solar/battery tech, prohibitively expensive and complex.

That, too, might be changing, thanks to some wild new battery designs that are claimed to be near commercialization. If even one of them lives up to their hype, it will revolutionize electric cars, while slashing the cost and complexity of off-grid life. Here’s an excerpt from an article on one of these new batteries’ impact on homesteading:

The Off-Grid Revolution: Personal Energy Independence Unleashed

If real, the Donut Lab battery is not merely a better EV component; it is the keystone for a wholesale defection from centralized systems. For decades, true off-grid living has been hampered by the limitations of lead-acid or lithium-ion storage: high cost, limited lifespan, fire risk, and poor performance in extreme temperatures. A battery with a 274-year lifespan, ultra-fast charging, and supreme safety would make energy independence not just feasible but economically superior. Individuals and families could harness solar or wind power, store it reliably for weeks or months, and become utterly immune to grid blackouts, soaring utility rates, and the whims of distant corporate or government energy managers.

The self-reliant homestead transforms from a lifestyle choice into a powerhouse of productivity. This battery could power not just a home’s lights and appliances, but also electric vehicles, farm equipment like tractors and harvesters, workshops, and even personal AI inference engines for research, creativity, and business—all running on free, harvested sunlight. The economic empowerment is staggering. It eliminates recurring fuel costs, complex internal combustion engine maintenance, and grid dependency fees, dramatically lowering the cost of living and productive work for individuals and smallholders. As highlighted in analysis of decentralization trends, the convergence of robust battery tech, robotics, and local AI creates a ‘decentralization trifecta’ that strips away dependencies on monopolies controlling power, labor, and intelligence.

Delusion or Reality?

Starlink is here and apparently living up to its promises. So it comes down to next-gen batteries. And the number of new designs that are claimed to be near commercialization is growing. See Donut and Samsung.

Hype is inherently untrustworthy, so nothing is guaranteed at this point. But better batteries would make our goals of resilience and self-sufficiency dramatically easier to achieve. So this is definitely worth watching.

John Rubino February 23rd, 2026

Posted In: John Rubino Substack

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