WANNA GO OFF-GRID AND GREEN?

Living off the land ain't what it used to be.

Dream of a low-carbon rural idyll getting closer?
Gerard Wynn, October 30, 2007 (Reuters via Yahoo News)

WHO
Author Nick Rosen on migrating urbanites.

click to enlarge

WHAT
Rosen’s book "How to live Off-Grid" is aimed at urbanites migrating to where they can live more sustainable lives.

WHEN
- Rosen describes the migration as an ongoing trend, inevitable in the long run. There are now 250,000 in the US and 100,000 in the UK living off-grid.
- Unlike 1960s “back to the land” greens, this is a movement of affluence as much as independence.
- Britain has goals of having all new homes zero-carbon by 2016 and building 3 million new homes by 2020.

WHERE
In the US and the UK, urbanites are migrating to “exurbia” (aka the stockbroker belt in Britain), a rural zone beyond the suburbs but close enough to get to the city when necessary or desirable.

WHY
- A variety of emerging technologies are fueling the “stampede,” including wireless communications and increasingly accessible solar and wind energies.
- In the exurban zones, where there is no water or power, the migrants buy raw land and build off-grid, dig their own wells and use gas or diesel generators.
- Britain’s ambitions in new home development will require it to institute zoning laws supportive of this new movement.
- The cost of the new solar, wind, battery and wireless technologies is coming down but is still challenging.
- Because it is still not easy to live off-grid, grid-connected houses are also instituting the technologies in a “bridging” strategy making them “greener.” A complete transition to an off-grid lifestyle may not come until an external event makes it more necessary.

Is that a yurt with a satellite dish and solar panels?

QUOTES
- Rosen, on the trend: "In the long-run it's where society's going... there'll be a rush to exurbia…The only thing that's stopping an exodus now in Britain is planning permission. But the rules are bending…"
- Rosen’s ad for his own land: "Land wanted in the UK: To live on. Mixture of woodland and meadow. South facing with water. Nowhere near a big road."
- Lucy Stone, Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT): "For most people living in houses, they have a grid connection and the easiest way to save energy is through energy efficiency…"
- Rosen, on the difficulties of being off-grid: "You just have to make concessions…you can't have a television, washing machine and electric lights all on at the same time in an off grid house powered by wind or solar power…Society has already accepted that we have to make concessions…It's going to need more than just turning down the thermostat a notch and recycling your rubbish…It might take continuing high oil prices, severe droughts, or a power, water or food shortage, to make off grid urgent…"