Headed in the right direction…

Off-grid is green

“Although a desire to go green isn’t usually the primary driver for people going off-grid, the lifestyle has many environmental benefits,” according to John Platt writing for online publication mothernaturenetwork. “For one thing, most off-grid homes or communities are in places where nature plays an important part of their everyday lives. ‘You become much more aware of the sun and the wind because you need it to power yourself,’ author Nick Rosen says. For another, people who are living off-grid do not tend to fill their lives with the same amount of stuff as your average consumer. ‘We’re all consuming too much. One of the big motivations for off-grid living is a weariness of the consumer society. It’s not necessarily anti-consumer, but post-consumer.'”

“Off-grid homes also eschew the American tendency toward overly large residences. ‘We’re over-housing ourselves,’ Rosen says. ‘That’s been very big feature of American society since the ’50s: The overly large house with the big heating and cooling bills, storing vast amounts of unnecessary possessions.’ Although off-grid housing varies in size and scope and energy needs, Rosen estimates that the average off-grid residence uses about 20 percent of the energy consumed by a typical American home.”

Jes sayin’…

Taking your Education/Formation building off-grid isn’t likely to happen. Geothermal has an almost prohibitively high up-front cost, more so for non-profits, and typically requires some land for the wells. Solar energy isn’t so daunting (also see my recent post, “Renewable Energy Commitment for Savings”). It has an advantage of credible businesses with good track records offering PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) to minimize up-front cost, particularly to non-profits that can’t take advantage of the tax incentives.

Three pubic schools in Harford County have solar systems deployed as retrofits on rooftops under PPAs. An official of the Anne Arundel County Public School system was heard to say recently that his people don’t like poking holes in roofs for any reason ‘though it was pointed out to him that alternative energy is being taught in the schools as a very good thing for the environment. Go figure…