You may have gotten your fill of the phrase “energy independence” with last year’s election: both parties and presidential candidates touted the idea repeatedly. It’s a compelling concept… it’s also contentious. For some, energy independence means harvesting solar, wind, and geothermal power; for others, it’s the motivation behind “Drill, baby, drill!” Either way, it’s a challenging goal at the national level.
At the local level, though, energy independence may be realistic… and numerous communities around the United States are exploring available renewable resources, and the technology necessary to harness them. Here’s just a handful of towns creating models for clean energy production… and good old fashioned self-reliance.
- San Jose, California: You’d probably expect Silicon Valley to lead the way on cutting-edge energy technology, and San Jose’s trying not to disappoint. Yesterday, the city council gave the city manager the authority to negotiate the terms of “an organics-to energy bio-gas facility.”
- Greensburg, Kansas: While this little town that’s attempting to rebuild itself as a “model green town” after a disastrous tornado doesn’t use the phrase “energy independence” much, the Kiowa County Community Wind Farm, slated to open in November ‘09, “will provide enough power to meet all the energy needs for the town in the foreseeable future.”
- Rock Port, Missouri: Small is beautiful when it comes to energy independence, and the town of Rock Port, Missouri (population 1,400) has become the first community in the nation completely powered by wind.
- Reynolds, Indiana: Another small (population 540) Midwestern town, Reynolds was chosen as the community to execute the state government’s “Biotown USA” experiment. The plan: power the town on a range of locally-available biomass, including cow poop.
- Warrenton, Virginia: Like San Jose, Warrenton, a suburb of Washington, DC, is taking the “trash into treasure” approach. Mayor George Fitch has spearheaded an effort to build a “biorefinery,” and reduce the town’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2015.
Of course, this list doesn’t include any of many ecovillages around the country and world dedicated to living lightly and with self-reliance…
We know there are many more green communities striving for energy independence that we’ve missed. If you know of one, share its story in the comments…
Image credit: vaxomatic at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
June 19th, 2009 - 11:53 pm
There’s plenty of wind to fill the sails of our mythical prairie schooner up here in Alberta; it sucks the moisture from the soil and hardens the lines on the faces of the farmers up here. My hubby and I were thinking about the small towns dotting the rural landscape of North America and published the site listed above. We sent President Obama a hard copy in the mail but never heard back. We were probably too optimistic about the size of the towns that might be targeted for a “makeover”; your article seems to confirm that. We still think the basic idea has merit. It provides the “hook” that might capture people’s imagination….
On a completely different note…during our travels we have encountered many a traffic jam in the major cities of the world and that got us to thinking about how many supermarkets stock their shelves at night. Consider how many man hours are lost delivering goods to retailers during the day. Picture the Dan Ryan beginning around 6AM as it approaches downtown Chicago, or Interstate 5, or a trip to the airport from any major city, etc. Trucks clogging the road! Of course Chicago prohibits private vehicular traffic on State Street, but why not expand the concept. Why not require deliveries at night. Drivers could be paid extra for night work and we would still save millions of dollars and millions of tons of particulates from idling engines. Radical, yes. Doable, yes. At least we think so!
June 21st, 2009 - 12:32 pm
Thank you so much for chiming in, Olga… love what you’re doing with your site…
June 23rd, 2009 - 11:47 am
[...] Energy, green building | by jonathangeorger Found over at the Sundance Channel’s SUNfiltered blog, comes an eye opener in terms of local communities making a step towards energy [...]
September 18th, 2009 - 12:01 pm
Far too little attention has been given to super-insulation! Proper applications of new and remarkable products as well as “Space Age” technologies still hidden under Military wraps as for defense industries only, will change the “Off-Grid” survival picture entirely! Super insulated Straw Bale homes are proof of the point! Folks live in them now, in the northern Canadian reaches, and little publicized, and not well known facts are: they have no or very low heating bills! Southern climates can do the same, and have no cooling bills! Somewhere on this marvelous net was a “Super Battery” using depleted uranium, with almost miraculous specifications! The ability to absorb almost any charge, surge, or low current, as from Wind Turbines, even in storms, and to discharge the same at required steady currents through what ever load placed on them! Forever, without fluids to maintain, and completely recyclable! This battery and an associated space-age “Alternator” of high frequency design, 400hz if I remember right, was a tenth the weight of comparable units, had “super-magnets and was used by the U.S. Navy, secretly, for aircraft! I wonder what else lies just beyond the fingertips of Joe Consumer, protected by patent law, greedy corporatism’s interests, and political forces unnameable? Are we really close to the brink of energy crisis or are we at an artificial barrier set up to justify extracting even more of our hard earned cash from our pockets? I for one feel that totally comfortable “Off-Grid” dwelling is entirely possible through modern technologies, and unrevealed modern science miracles we have no access yet to! “Stuff” leaks to then net! There are “Watchers” Asians sometimes “Tell All” and they have a remarkable store of knowledge as yet uncontrolled by greedy corporatism and capitalism One day soon, mankind will be given an energy independence our forefathers never knew, and that day approaches and will cause great paradigm shifts in the world!