I had, what I could only describe as a vision. In this vision, I saw a community with everything you could need in a community. Homes, schools, stores, libraries, police and fire stations, medical facilities and anything else you could think of. The difference between this and other communities is that this community was totally self sufficient as far as their energy was concerned. Every home and business was powered by solar panel and/or wind turbine. All of them were hooked up together for shared energy and, also, to power the public buildings like town hall, the hospital and others. There were no utility poles because all the wiring was underground.One reason to hook them all together is so that when someones equipment has to be shut down for maintenance or repair they won't have to go without power. And when you add that to much reduced property taxes, everyone wouldn't be paying a power bill every month. Everyone benefits.
Does this sound like a good idea to you? I just want to find out if my imagination is working, or am I just crazy?
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Oddly enough, we live in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. 90 buildings, 25,000 people. All of our heat and hot water is from co-gen steam from a gas turbine electric plant down the street. A large proportion of people here walk or bike to work (I bike). All appliances are 5-star rated. Utilities are literally to cheap to meter; they're just built into the rent. There's an even bigger one of these in The Bronx, Parkchester. Has its own schools, shops, offices, what have you.
andygee
Level 7
Feb 24, 2018
1
i love it & am totally for interactive community - as long as we can keep the church non-existent 
walklightly
Level 8
Feb 21, 2018
1
No, not at all crazy, and in fact very doable.
We are working on microgrids here,
there are 300 houses on my local transformer, more than 1/2 have some solar, but most don't have enough. We could go 2 ways, house batteries in each home that feed back into the grid at night and/or a community level bank of batteries that we all feed into during the day. The microgrid could export surplus surplus to the national grid during the day, and draw from it in times of rain and no sun, but be mostly self contained. I have the largest residential solar setup in the area, I would do more if permitted, but the local tavern has hundred of panels and they are in my grid as is a school and preschool. I am negotiating with our state health department for the community to be able to use the roof of our medical centre as a solar garden, I have one more suitable roof at work that we can install solar on. We have underground power already and last quarter I received a $500 credit from my energy company for the surplus power I sold to them. Keep these visions coming, so much is possible, I had a saying once, imagination saves.
I love this one.
[byronbaytrain.com.au]
Rugglesby
Level 8
Feb 21, 2018
2
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