Modern Day Pioneers Choosing Life Off The Grid

A growing movement of eco-conscious homeowners are choosing to forgo commercial power service in favor of their home-based systems based on solar and wind generators.

1 minute read

May 18, 2007, 2:00 PM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera


"Off-the-grid living is edging into the American mainstream. It isn't there yet, but about 180,000 homes, mostly in the West, operate on it.

National demand is soaring and the off-the-grid movement is yet to be felt in a significant way by the power industry, said Jim Owen of the Edison Energy Institute in Washington, D.C. In the short term at least, he said, ''I can't imagine any appreciable impact on the system.''

Nonetheless, the number of people going off the grid increases by about a third each year, said Richard Perez, who publishes Home Power magazine, dedicated to the topic, and Lori Ryker, who has written two books on the subject.

Much of the growth is in California. Off-the-grid living is also growing in Texas, New Jersey and Wisconsin."

Friday, May 18, 2007 in The New York Times

Lake Powell with much of the water evaporated.

Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River

Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.

October 30, 2026 - Yale Environment 360

A road in north eastern Nebraska with power lines on either side, and grassy fields.

Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity

Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.

November 6, 2026 - Grist

A rendering of a mall turned living space. People walk around a green space surrounded by apartments.

Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future

Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.

October 29, 2026 - Ben Schneider

Two people stand under mesh coverings shaped like petals

Houston gains petal-shaped cooling infrastructure to make streets more ‘delightful’

The city has installed the pavilions along 15 blocks in Houston.

45 minutes ago - De Zeen

A drawn rendering of the light rail passing through a tree-lined neighborhood.

After years of opposition to light rail, this L.A. city wants a $200 million station

Cerritos officials want the Southeast Gateway Line, a planned 14.5-mile light rail route through Los Angeles County, to stop in their city.

1 hour ago - Los Cerritos Community News

The xAI power plant in Southaven, through trees. It is a large gray building.

SpaceXAI may be fined $6 million for data center lacking water permits

A Mississippi agency also responds after a federal judge criticized the state’s Clean Air Act enforcement.

2 hours ago - Mississippi Today

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.