

What community has the highest per-capita use of solar energy in Ohio? None other than the Amish.

It might sound strange to people who think of the Amish as 19th century holdovers, but that's an oversimplification. Instead, after considering the impact to their values and way of life, Amish communities decide communally whether to adopt new technologies.

Stoltzfus is an Amish traditionalist. He works with his hands at a sawmill, wears plain clothes and the requisite straw hat, and doesn't care much for the conveniences of the mainstream world. But he uses solar energy to charge batteries for buggy lights, flashlights and the nebulizer that his 6-year-old son sometimes uses for his asthma.

[...] In the early 20th century, the Amish rejected the enticements of the public power grid, deciding they did not want to be too directly linked to, or dependent on, the outside world, said Donald Kraybill, a senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. But they never dismissed electricity wholesale. Over time, the Amish have turned to a range of energy sources – water, wind, batteries, gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, propane gas, coal and wood. The application of solar energy has increased rapidly in the Amish community in the past five years, Kraybill said. Not all Amish people approve, but many do – particularly if solar energy is used for business and home use is kept to a minimum. Solar electricity fits into the Amish self-sufficiency model. It is convenient, safe and, unlike some Amish-sanctioned alternatives, there are no noxious fumes or noise and no fuel costs. "There's so much free sun and free air, and if we could harness it, we wouldn't need any more power plants," said Andrew Hertzler, an Amish farmer selling flowers and plants outside the local library here on a recent afternoon.

Related Wired coverage here and here.

Amish in Southern Md. find solar power plain practical [Baltimore Sun]

Image: Franco Folini*