Choosing Renewable Energy

Image Gallery Although people often talk about being more “self-reliant” and achieving “energy independence,” Wendy Milne says her experience with renewable energy has been that it becomes a community effort, with friends and family eager to learn more about these sustainable technologies. WENDY MILNE

We began our journey toward household energy independence about eight years ago, and we now rely almost exclusively on wood, wind and solar energy to power and heat our home, offices and workshop. We still have grid electricity available at the flip of a switch, but we avoid using it unless we have to. This is a report from the front lines of our transition to renewables. Over the last eight years we’ve spent a lot of money and made some big mistakes. On the other hand, we’ve found that the challenges offer great learning opportunities, and the journey to energy self-sufficiency is endlessly engaging and deeply rewarding.

John: We embarked on this project with a few advantages. First, our house sits on 100 acres of bush (to call it a “forest” would overstate its quality) in rural Ontario, Canada, where there are no zoning or code restrictions on the use of renewable energies. Second, I’ve been in the renewable energy business for almost 30 years through my involvement with wood heating, and Wendy has done some of her academic research on renewable energy. We were both committed to the project from the start, which made it easier to get through the rough patches. Third, we started with no expectations of achieving a significant return on our investment, so we’ve treated the effort as a combination hobby and research project.

Wendy: A number of things converged in the fall and winter of 1997 to 1998 to shape not only my research on renewable energy but our own household conversion. After two decades working in public education, community development and women’s organizations, in the fall of 1997 I began to pursue a doctorate in the field of sustainable rural communities. I was interested in studying women’s participation in sustainability, and energy piqued my interest as a possible research focus. Then the ice storm of January 1998 struck the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. We were just on the edge of the most seriously damaged areas, but we were without electricity for four days, the roads were impassable, and after two days we were without telephone service when the utility’s battery backup system failed. It seemed like a signal that the time was right to immerse ourselves in renewable energy.

John: Although I had followed energy issues for a long time, concentrating on home energy these last few years has deepened my understanding. One insight I’ve gained is that the household, as a site of the production and consumption of energy, can be viewed as a microcosm of the global energy dilemma. That is, the energy problem is not a simple one to solve at either the household or global level, and it will take effort and creativity to do so.