1.) Step one: Start a Commune

2.) Step two: ???

3.) Step three: PROFIT!

The concept looks like this: A main house (built like a regular commune type structure), with four cabin satellites around the outside. Each Cabin runs on a different type Alternative Energy source, and supports a like number of people for a set amount of time. We find out what its like to live under these conditions, when we "stop having fun, and start to get REAL". No, sorry, I got carried away there for a moment.

A definition of Green Energy, as described by the all-seeing-all-knowing Wikipedia is as follows:

“Green energy includes natural energetic processes which can be harnessed with little pollution. Anaerobic digestion, geothermal power, wind power, small-scale hydropower, solar power, biomass power, tidal power and wave power fall under such a category. Some versions may also include power derived from the incineration of waste.”

For the sake of an easily linked article, we can assume that the definitions of these things, as broad as they are, are the categories that I am going to use as demarcations.

We can also eliminate a few of the runners in this discussion: We won’t have access to the scale technology to successfully run Anaerobic Digestion, and neither will we have the infrastructure for incineration as an energy source. These two are out. We are also probably not going to be able to locate near enough to an ocean to have a legitimate shot at Tidal Power, and Wave Power is pretty much on boats only, as I understand it. These two, for the sake of this discussion, are also out. Geothermal Power, also dependant on massive amounts of heat generated in a single place, is also not practical for this discussion.

This leaves, as basic building blocks for my experiment, the following: Wind Power., Solar Power, Bio-Mass Energy and Small Scale Hydro-Electric Power. Wind, water, sun and… stuff. For the sake of this project, that leaves us with 4 Cabins, each trying to get to the point of supporting 2 people full time for 1 year. Thus, we are looking at 8 people, with a potential support/research staff of up to 2 more: living in the main house, and working on different forms of insulation etc. Variable cast: 8-10.

Each house has the express goal of creating enough energy to allow two people to live in relative comfort. The goal is not minimalist living, but rather luxurious living with minimalist tactics. Thus, we would make each cabin into a one bedroom apartment, with a larger common room/kitchen and a smaller sleeping area. We would attempt to equip each with running water, a fully equipped kitchen and bathroom, a television and a P.C. We would build each house within a budget, and hopefully insulate in such a way as be both the energy efficient and most cost effective. (if it were a really good experiment, we would run three cabins with each type of energy source, and record different levels of insulation as well. We are almost certainly not able to perform to that level of scientific rigidity.)

We will do our best, over the course of this experiment, to share equal time spent in each cabin. (E.G. people living there, cooking there, watching TV there, throwing parties there, etc.) And we will try to remove as many of the nearly limitless other variables that will be thrust onto the scene as we possibly can.

More (hopefully much) to come.