Energy, a Slow but Steady Feat

It's taken me a while to write a post about energy at The Farm in Tennessee and at EcoVillage at Ithaca. Most of what I found through their websites and articles about the ecovillages have shown me that they are both currently hooked up to the grid. For The Farm, this means getting some energy from nuclear power and Appalachian coal fired power plants. Even so, most ecovillagers at The Farm are buying more power from a local wind farm than fossil fuels. The Farm also makes extensive use of solar panels by adding them to the roofs of most of their buildings. At EcoVillage at Ithaca, ecovillagers practice conservation measures. They also have one natural gas boiler per cluster of 8 homes for heat and hot water. SONG, one of the neighborhoods at EVI, has been pretty progressive in utilizing renewable energy. Some energy features include, a solar electric grid system supplemented by green grid power (I'm not completely sure what that means, the link on the website wouldn't work). Solar hot water heaters, and energy star machines in their community laundry room have also been implemented. Both ecovillages are also utilizing sustainable building techniques to maximize passive heating and cooling, natural lighting and other design techniques that can be found on John's blog-- Ecovillage Design.

At first, I was a little disappointed and thought, "These ecovillages are supposed to be leaders, living 100% off the grid and generating their own renewable energy!" But then I realized that at this point in time, its not feasible to live that way. Currently, there is no perfect alternative to using commercial fossil fuel generated electricity from a local grid. It is the cheapest and most convenient source of energy. Its a lot more expensive to buy all of one's power from local wind farms, or to buy enough solar panels to generate all of the electricity needed to power an entire community. I think this is one of the biggest challenges of our time-- to get off our dependence of cheap fossil fuel derived energy. But you have to start somewhere, and both The Farm and EVI have incorporated impressive renewable energy techniques. They also both plan to incorporate more renewable energy as technology increases and costs for these energy sources decrease as they become more widely used. Another thing they are both doing are implementing conservation measures, something that needs to be incorporated into everyone's life. Even though you may be hooked up to the grid and your electricity may come from a coal fired power plant, all hope is not lost. As long as you conserve, use less lights, turn off computers when they are not in use, use compact flourescent light bulbs, unplug electronics when not in use, etc, it can dramatically reduce the amount of energy you are consuming and thereby contribute to more sustainable means of energy consumption.