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INTRODUCTION

Ecovillages and Intentional Communities often utilize tools, technologies, and practices to reduce total energy consumption and produce and deliver local energy using renewable energy sources, like biomass, hydroelectric or hydrokinetic, solar, and wind power. These energy sources are frequently rather small scale, serving individual buildings, neighborhoods, or rather small communities. Any size and scale is possible though, up to and including major utility-scale projects in scales all the way up to gigawatts.

[Include intro section discussions of each major clean-energy type?]

Bioenergy

Energy storage

Hydro power

Solar energy

Wind energy

Electricity generation

Energy distribution

Heat, fuels, and cooking

Low/zero energy appliances

Timing of energy use

Off-grid appliances, tools, and equipment[2][3]

Directory of tools and appliances that use solar-power to charge batteries

for operating small farming, gardening, and appilances. Listing does not imply endorsement, nor guarantee quality.

COMPANY NAME Product Types URL
Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA),

Member Product Showcase,

 https://www.gogla.org/member-product-showcase/
GoSun https://gosun.co/
Litheli https://litheli.com/
Sesame Solar pre-configured nanogrids https://www.sesame.solar

Applications in Ecovillages and Intentional Communities

Energy Community applications

Governance / organisation / principles of energy systems

  • Comprehensive energy efficiency
  • Cascade of energy and cascade of heat

Low- and Net-Zero Emissions Building Practices

RESOURCES

  1. ↑ Case study from Hammarby Sjostad in Sweden. Biogas from their wastewater treatment plant is piped back to the community for the gas-stoves used in households. There may well be better case studies by now. https://www.visitstockholm.com/o/hammarby-sjostad/
  2. ↑ Efficiency for Access Coalition, 2023, Building Resilience in Low-Income Communities: The Role of Off-Grid Appliances. Available at: https://sun-connect.org/wpcont/uploads/Building-Resilience-in-Low-Income-Communities-The-Role-of-Off-Grid-Appliances.pdf
  3. ↑ SunConnect.org, Top Findings from Why Off-Grid Energy Matters 2024 [Electronic article, March 2024]: https://sun-connect.org/top-findings-from-why-off-grid-energy-matters-2024/
Page data
Part of Ecovillages & Intentional Communities Energy and Climate Action Research Project
Keywords ecovillage, sustainable development, climate action
SDG SDG13 Climate action
License CC-BY-SA-4.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 0 pages link here
Views 117 page views (analytics)
Created December 13, 2023 by Tom Stanton
Last edit April 26, 2026 by Tom Stanton
Cite as TomStanton (2023–2026). "Ecovillage & Intentional Community Solutions: Energy". Appropedia. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
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