EcoVillages: Living off the Grid
Source: https://www.forbes.com/
Alex Whitcroft, an architectural designer from the UK, first came to Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage in rural Missouri to learn natural building techniques. He returned two years later in 2011 as one of its 60 or so residents.
Like most buildings at Dancing Rabbit, the home Whitcroft shares with his partner, Jennifer Martin, and two of her children is made with natural materials: sustainably harvested or reclaimed wood, natural plasters, and straw bales harvested from surrounding fields for insulation. “It’s very bioregional,” said Whitcroft.
While half of their community reconnected to the grid in 2011, Dancing Rabbit is net positive - producing more energy than it consumes. And there are plans to install a medium-size wind turbine within the next couple of years. At Abundance EcoVillage near Farfield, IA, real estate developer Amy Greenfield shares a Bergey 10 kW wind turbine and 7 kW solar array with 13 neighbors.
“My home looks much like the typical American home,” said Greenfield. But “it uses about 90% less electricity than the average household in the surrounding area. I would never know I was living off the grid if it weren't for the wind turbine spinning behind my house.”